烟 yān – smoke

Main meanings:

①smoke, mist, vapor.

② tobacco.

③ cigarette.

HSK - 4

STROKES - 10

RADICAL - 火

Etymology:

Elements ---- Fire 火 + bed 因. Phonetic series 因.

Simplified from. 煙: The smoke that leaves the altar 垔. After it also used for other similar airs, as mist, vapor, etc. From there > tobacco (produce smoke), and later > cigarette (to smoke tobacco).

After the simplification also can be easily remembered as:, smoke is produced by the fire heating the room where the bed 因 is placed.

Main Words:

抽烟 chōuyān – smoke (take + smoke)

烟囱 yāncōng – chimney, funnel (smoke + chimney)

香烟 xiāngyān – cigarette/ incense smoke/ sacrifices to ancestors/ posterity (fragrant + smoke)

烟雾 yānwù – smoke; mist; smog (smoke + mist)

烟斗 yāndǒu – tobacco/opium pipe (smoke + cup-shaped)

Discussion and sources

This character is good to illustrate some ideas I am defending many years. Not only the original characters were composed with several elements that have semantic value. At the moment of the simplification of the characters in the 20th century, there same patrons were followed. It can be surprising to find that the meaning of smoke is easy to discover in both the complex and simplified form.

Some of my books about Chinese characters

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