靥 (yè): dimple

Meanings

1 dimple
2 small depression on the cheek when smiling

Characters

靥

yè

dimple

Examples

她笑起来有两个浅浅的酒靥。

Tā xiào qǐlái yǒu liǎng gè qiǎn qiǎn de jiǔ yè.

When she smiles, two shallow dimples appear.

笑靥如花，让人看了心动。

Xiào yè rú huā, ràng rén kàn le xīndòng.

Her dimpled smile is like a flower — it makes hearts skip.

Tips

register

Literary character — everyday speech says 酒窝 (jiǔwō) 'wine pit' for dimples. 靥 mostly survives in compounds like 笑靥 (xiàoyè, dimpled smile) and 酒靥 (jiǔyè, dimples).

culture

In 《红楼梦》 (Dream of the Red Chamber), Lin Daiyu is described as 态生两靥之愁 — 'a sorrowful air rising from her two dimples,' fixing 靥 as a marker of delicate beauty in classical Chinese literature.

Components

radical

面 miàn

face

Bottom-right face radical 面 — pictograph of a face with the eye boxed in. It marks 靥 as a feature of the face, specifically the small hollow that appears when smiling. Rare in everyday writing but treasured in classical poetry for describing a beautiful face: 笑靥 the smiling dimple.

phonetic

厌 yàn

to dislike; satisfied (here phonetic)

Outer-top 厌 supplies the sound — yàn drifting to yè with vowel shortening. 厌 originally pictured a dog pressed under a cliff (the cliff radical 厂 wrapping the dog), giving "pressed flat, satiated." The pressed-flat sense quietly suits a dimple — a soft indentation on the cheek.