冰 | bing

In Mandarin Chinese, 冰 (Pinyin: bīng 🔊) could be a noun meaning “ice”, a verb “to freeze”, or an adjective for “freezing”, “frozen” or “ice-cold”. It is also a slang term for a recreational drug methamphetamine (probably from “ice”, one of its English synonyms).

冰 looks very much like the character 水 “water” with two additional strokes 冫 which, in turn, represent a radical form of 仌, which is a pictogram of ice (also pronounced bīng). We also saw two (slightly different) strokes in 冬 “winter”, a season that has something to with “ice” and “cold”!

氷 is an alternative form of 冰 featuring only one extra stroke; this form is more common in Japan. Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

The relevant seal inscription form shows cracks spreading over the ice of a river frozen in winter → ice → be frozen; freezing cold.

Compounds of 冰 include

• 冰 + 茶 = 冰茶 (bīngchá): iced tea
• 冰 + 山 = 冰山 (bīngshān 🔊): iceberg
• 溜 + 冰 = 溜冰 (liūbīng 🔊): ice-skating

The Chinese name of Disney’s animated blockbuster Frozen is 冰雪奇缘 (bīng xuě qí yuán), literally “Ice and snow romance”.

More photos of ice @ Shutterstock.

贝 | bèi

In Mandarin Chinese, 贝 (Pinyin: bèi 🔊) means “shellfish” or “cowrie”. In ancient China, cowries were used as money, therefore this symbol also has an ancient meaning of “money” or “currency”. According to Wiktionary,

Guo (1945) proposes that cowries used by the ancient Chinese dynasties in Central China must have come from the southeastern shores of China and areas further south, as the species of sea snail used as decoration and currency — Monetaria moneta (money cowry) — is not native to the eastern seashores of China.

贝 is a simplified form of the traditional character 貝, which evolved from a pictogram of a cowrie shell. Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

A depiction of a bivalve (one split open to reveal its contents) → shellfish; (sea) shell → treasure.

Unsurprisingly, there are many compounds of 贝 related to shellfish, for example 螺贝 / 螺貝 (luóbèi) “conch”, 贻贝 / 貽貝 (yíbèi) “mussel”, or 扇贝 / 扇貝 (shànbèi) “scallop”. 贝 is also used phonetically in words of foreign origin, such as 贝鲁特 / 貝魯特 (Bèilǔtè) “Beirut”, 诺贝尔 / 諾貝爾 (Nuòbèi'ěr) “Nobel”, or 分贝 / 分貝 (fēnbèi) “decibel”.

More photos related to shells and shellfish @ Shutterstock.