霜

shuāng
noun HSK 7-9 #8,769

Meanings

  1. 1 frost
  2. 2 cream (cosmetic or food topping)

Characters

The 雨 radical on top indicates weather; 相 gives the sound. Frozen dew on cold mornings.

Examples

HSK 2
Jīntiān zǎoshang dìshàng yǒu shuāng.
There was frost on the ground this morning.
HSK 7-9
Tā měitiān dōu tú fángshàishuāng.
She applies sunscreen every day.
HSK 7-9
Shuāngjiàng shì qiūtiān de zuìhòu yígè jiéqì.
Frost Descent is the last solar term of autumn.

Tips

usage
霜 doubles as 'cream' in product names: 面霜 (face cream), 防晒霜 (sunscreen), 冰霜 (icy frost). The 'cream' sense comes from frost's white, thin-layer appearance.
culture
霜降 (Frost Descent) is the 18th of 24 solar terms in the Chinese calendar, marking when frost first appears - usually around October 23.

Components

radical
雨 yǔ
rain
Top rain radical - a cloud with four water droplets falling beneath it. It indexes 霜 in the weather family: 雪 snow, 雷 thunder, 露 dew, 雾 fog, 霾 haze. Anything precipitated from the sky lives under 雨. Frost is just rain that froze before it landed, so the placement is exact.
phonetic
相 xiāng
appearance; mutual
Bottom 相 supplies the sound xiāng → shuāng with the regular x/sh alternation. Same phonetic appears in 想 think, 箱 box, 厢 wing-room. Faint semantic flavor: 相 was originally 'looking at a tree with the eye,' and frost is what you see on the bare branches at dawn - sky-rain meeting the morning tree.

Stroke Order

霜 shuāng