新 | xīn

In Mandarin Chinese, 新 (Pinyin: xīn 🔊) is an adjective that means “new”, “fresh”, “recent”, etc., or a corresponding adverb. It was also the name of short-lived Xin dynasty, 新朝 (Xīncháo).

According to Wiktionary, 新 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 亲 “hazelnut tree” and semantic 斤 “axe”:

to cut down a tree with an axe (hence starting something new).

Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters gives a different explanation:

The left-hand element is an abbreviated form of one combining 辛 needle/cutting tool and 木 tree/wood → thornbush (the sharp, needle-like thorns in close proximity). 新 adds 斤 ax → create firewood by chopping a thornbush/tree with a sharp ax. New is an extended meaning (← freshly hewn tree/wood) → recently/lately.

Many compound words of 新 include

• 新 + 月 = 新月 (xīnyuè): new moon
• 新 + 年 = 新年 (xīnnián 🔊): New Year
• 新 + 生 = 新生 (xīnshēng): newborn; recent; to be born again; to be reborn
• 新 + 人 = 新人 (xīnrén): newly married (couple, wife, husband); new lover; new personality; new talent; newcomer; new person; someone who is making a fresh start; Homo sapiens sapiens
• 新 + 娘 = 新娘 (xīnniáng 🔊): bride
• 新 + 郎 = 新郎 (xīnláng 🔊): bridegroom
• 新 + 星 = 新星 (xīnxīng): (astronomy) nova; (figuratively) rising star
• 超 + 新星 = 超新星 (chāoxīnxīng): (astronomy) supernova
• 新 + 戊烷 “pentane” = 新戊烷 (xīnwùwán): (chemistry) neopentane
• 新 + 田 = 新田 (xīntián): new field; new farmland
• 新 + 茶 = 新茶 (xīnchá): new tea of the year

More photos related to new stuff, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

红 | hóng

In Mandarin Chinese, 红 (Pinyin: hóng 🔊) is an adjective for (colour) “red”. Another meaning is “popular” or “in vogue”.

红 is a simplified form of the traditional character 紅, which is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 糸 “silk” and phonetic 工 (gōng 🔊), “labour”, “work”. Something to do with (textile) workers’ movement and, by extension, revolution, communism? Not exactly (although 红 grew to represent all that too). Lawrence J. Howell explains in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

彔 thread + 工 here an abbreviated form of 汞 (gǒng) mercury → fabric/textiles dyed a deep red (compare 絳) → crimson; rouge → lipstick.

I presume that “mercury” here refers to cinnabar (mercury sulphide), a historic source for the red pigment vermilion. According to Wikipedia, in China cinnabar has been used for its colour since as early as the Yangshao culture (around 5000 BC to 3000 BC).

Interesting compounds of 红 include

• 口 + 红 = 口红 (kǒuhóng): lipstick
• 月 + 月 + 红 = 月月红 (yuèyuèhóng): China rose (Rosa chinensis)
• 红 + 人 = 红人 (hóngrén): favourite; pet; rising star; celebrity
• 红 + 花 = 红花 (hónghuā): safflower (Carthamus tinctorius)
• 红 + 茶 = 红茶 (hóngchá): black tea

Wait a minute, I hear you saying, didn’t you just tell us that “black” is 黑? Yes, I did, and yes, you read that right: what in Europe we call “black tea” (because of the colour of the tea leaves), Chinese call 红茶, i.e. “red tea” (referring to the colour of the liquid). Conversely, what Chinese call 黑茶 (hēichá), literally “black tea”, means fermented tea such as Pu-erh, which in Europe is known as “red tea”, té rojo etc. I hope everything is red black clear now.

Incidentally, the symbols above were created using Pu-erh tea because I’ve already used the leaves of 红茶 to create the hanzi 乌 and 烏. So there.

More photos related to safflower, tea and colour red @ Shutterstock.

绿 | lǜ

In Mandarin Chinese, 绿 (Pinyin: lǜ 🔊) means “green”. Compounds of 绿 include

• 绿 + 阴 = 绿阴 (lǜyīn): shade of a tree
• 绿 + 卡 = 绿卡 (lǜkǎ): green card
• 绿 + 茶 = 绿茶 (lǜchá): green tea

Incidentally, the symbols for this entry were created using green leaf tea.

绿 is a simplified form of the traditional character 綠, which is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 糸 “silk” and phonetic 彔 (lù 🔊). But what does silk have to do with colour green? Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

As per 彔 (pare/strip bamboo) + 糸 thread → threads dyed the vivid color of bamboo freshly stripped of its bark → green → light green.

In Japanese, 綠 is pronounced midori. Apart from meaning colour green, Midori is a popular female given name.

More photos related to tea and colour green @ Shutterstock.

乌 | wū

In Mandarin Chinese, 乌 (Pinyin: wū 🔊 or wù 🔊) is either a noun meaning “crow”, “raven”, or “rook”, or an adjective for colour “black”. It looks like this latter meaning arose as a short for 乌黑, “black as a crow” (or a raven, or a rook, in Chinese it’s all the same).

乌 is a simplified form of the traditional character 烏, which evolved from a pictogram of a bird, just like 马 (remember it?) is a simplified form of 馬. Now to remember the difference between a crow and a horse...

Compounds of 乌 include

• 乌 + 木 = 乌木 (wūmù): ebony
• 乌 + 金 = 乌金 (wūjīn): “black gold”: ink or coal
• 乌 + 龙 + 茶 = 乌龙茶 (wūlóngchá): oolong tea (literally, “black dragon tea”)

Incidentally, the symbols above were created using black leaf tea.

More photos related to crows, tea and colour black @ Shutterstock.

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.

草 | cǎo

In Mandarin Chinese, 草 (Pinyin: cǎo 🔊) is a noun that means “grass”, “straw”, “thatch”, “herb”; by extension, any green plant without bark (or, to use Baldrick’s method of defining things, “not a tree”); “draft”, “sketch” (the scribble that looks like grass?). It also has acquired an euphemistic meaning of the similarly-pronounced vulgar word 肏 (cào).

According to Wiktionary, 草 is a

Phono-semantic compound: semantic 艸 (“grass; plant”) + phonetic 早. Originally referred to 皂, and later borrowed for the “grass” sense, replacing 艸.

艹 is a radical form of 艸. We’ve seen it before in such characters as 茶 “tea” and 花 “flower”.

More photos related to grass, herbs, straw and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

花 | huā

In Mandarin Chinese, the literal meaning of 花 (Pinyin: huā 🔊) is “flower”. This word has many figurative meanings, such as “pattern” (floral or otherwise), “pinnacle”, “fireworks”, “a beauty” or “a lady of the night”. 花 forms many compounds, such as 茶花 (cháhuā) “camellia”, 火花 (huǒhuā) “spark” and 水花 (shuǐhuā) “spray”.

The top part of this character, 艹, means “grass”. We’ve seen this radical before as a part of 茶 (chá), “tea”. The bottom part, 化 (huà), in its turn, consists of two 人, i.e. “people”: one upright (亻) and another upside down, together symbolising “change” or “reversal”. According to Ponte Ryūrui,

The bottom part of 花 (化, か, i.e. “action of making something”, “change”) acts purely phonetically, although certain etymology theories suggest to take 化 as “a change” of the state of a plant (blossoming).

More photos related to flowers, fireworks, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

茶 | chá

In Mandarin Chinese, 茶 (Pinyin: chá 🔊) means “tea”.

Turkish çay and Russian чай are the variations on the theme of chá. In Min Nan, the same word is pronounced as tê; thanks to the Dutch East India Company, this plant and drink is known in Europe as tea.

According to Wiktionary, 茶 is a graphical modification of archaic 荼 (tú):

荼 can refer to one of several types of bitter tasting vegetables. Early Chinese texts are rather vague in their description. This makes it difficult to determine which species it originally referred to.

Whatever is real origin of the character, I prefer thinking of it as a slightly scrambled doodle of a traditional Chinese tea house.

More photos of tea and sea glass @ Shutterstock.