稔 (rěn) · ripe (of grain); a year's harvest

Meanings

1 ripe (of grain); a year's harvest
2 familiar; well-acquainted with

Characters

稔

rěn

ripe grain; familiar

Examples

HSK 6

他对这一带的山路十分稔熟。

Tā duì zhè yídài de shānlù shífēn rěnshú.

He is thoroughly familiar with the mountain paths around here.

HSK 7-9

五谷丰稔，百姓安乐。

Wǔgǔ fēng rěn, bǎixìng ānlè.

The five grains ripen abundantly; the people live in peace and joy.

Tips

memory

Radical is 禾 (grain) - the original sense is 'grain ripening,' which extended metaphorically to 'long acquaintance ripening into familiarity' (稔熟 rěnshú = well-acquainted).

register

Almost exclusively literary or in fixed compounds: 丰稔 (bountiful harvest), 稔知 (to know well), 稔熟 (intimately familiar). Not used as a free word in modern speech.

Components

radical

禾 hé

grain; standing crop

Left 禾 - pictograph of a stalk of grain bending under the weight of its ripe ear. As the indexing radical it carries the literal meaning: a 稔 is a year's grain harvest, especially when ripe. Same radical groups 稔 with 稻 rice, 稀 sparse, 秋 autumn.

phonetic

念 niàn

to think of; to recite

Right 念 supplies the sound - niàn shifting to rěn through an old n/r alternation. The semantic flavour 'to keep in mind' also feeds the secondary literary sense of 稔: to be familiar with, well-acquainted - knowing something the way a farmer knows his crop.