渍 (zì) · stain; mark

Meanings

1 stain; mark
2 to soak; to steep
3 floodwater

Characters

渍

zì

stain; to soak

Examples

HSK 4

衣服上有油渍。

Yīfu shàng yǒu yóu zì.

There's an oil stain on the clothes.

HSK 7-9

这个污渍很难洗掉。

Zhège wūzì hěn nán xǐ diào.

This stain is hard to wash out.

Tips

usage

Usually appears in compounds: 油渍 (grease stain), 污渍 (stain/smudge), 血渍 (bloodstain), 茶渍 (tea stain).

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form of 水)

Left three-drop water radical - side-form of 水 (Kangxi #85). Indexes 渍 in the liquid family: 浸 (steep), 沾 (moisten), 染 (dye), 泡 (soak). Anchors the meaning: a stain is liquid that has soaked in, and to 渍 something is to leave it in liquid until it absorbs the substance.

phonetic

责 zé

duty; demand

Right 责 supplies the sound - zé shifted to zì, the regular drift in this phonetic family. 责 itself stacks 主 (master) over 贝 (money) for 'demand payment'; the meaning doesn't carry. Same phonetic in 债 (debt), 啧 (click of tongue), 帻 (head-cloth). The common compounds 油渍 (oil stain), 血渍 (blood stain), 腌渍 (to pickle) all live on the absorbing-liquid sense.