染

染 (Kangxi radical 75, 木+5, 9 strokes, cangjie input 水弓木 (END), four-corner 3490₄, composition ⿱氿木(GJKV) or ⿱氿𣎳(HT))

• 媣, 𫽦, 蒅, 𩃵

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 519, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14621
• Dae Jaweon: page 907, character 3
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1188, character 7
• Unihan data for U+67D3

Historical forms of the character 染
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts
Small seal script s08351 Transcribed ancient scripts L35510 L18800 L18797 L18798 L18799
References: Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation), which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including: Shuowen Jiezi (small seal), Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions), Liushutong (Liushutong characters) and Yinxu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

Ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 氵 (“water”) + 九 (“hook”) + 木 (“tree”) – to hang (on a hook 九) from a tree (木) into water (氵), so as to dye.

Earlier forms more often graphically 氵 + 杂; in the modern form, the water radical is moved upward to the upper-left corner.

Coblin (1986) compares this to Tibetan ཉམས་པ (nyams pa, “be stained, tarnished, spoiled”); Pan (1987) also notes Proto-Tai *ɲuɔmᴬ as well as Vietnamese nhuộm, both meaning "to dye".

Schuessler (2007) cites Downer (1986)'s opinion that form with 上 (shàng) tone is the verb, while form with 去 (qù) tone is the noun meaning "kind of cloth" (Lǐjì).

染

1. to dye

   把頭髮染成棕色／把头发染成棕色  ―  bǎ tóufà rǎn chéng zōngsè  ―  to dye one's hair brown

   • 共和國的旗幟上有我們血染的風采 [MSC, trad.]
     共和国的旗帜上有我们血染的风采 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 1986, 血染的風采

     gònghéguó de qízhì shàng yǒu wǒmen xuè rǎn de fēngcǎi

     The flag of our Republic has our blood-stained glory.

2. to catch (a disease); to fall into (a bad habit)

   染上破傷風／染上破伤风  ―  rǎn shàng pòshāngfēng  ―  to get tetanus

3. a surname: Ran

• “染”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(Sixth grade kyōiku kanji)

1. dye, color, paint, stain, print

• Go-on: ねん (nen)^{←ねん (nen, historical)←ねむ (nemu, ancient)}
• Kan-on: ぜん (zen)^{←ぜん (zen, historical)←ぜむ (zemu, ancient)}
• Kan’yō-on: せん (sen, Jōyō)^{←せん (sen, historical)←せむ (semu, ancient)}
• Kun: しみ (shimi, 染み, Jōyō)、そめる (someru, 染める, Jōyō)、しみる (shimiru, 染みる, Jōyō)、そまる (somaru, 染まる, Jōyō)

From Middle Chinese 染 (MC nyemX|nyemH).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

染

Wikisource

染 (eumhun 물들일 염 (muldeuril yeom))

1. hanja form^? of 염 (“dye”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

染: Hán Nôm readings: nhuộm, nhẹm, nhiễm, nhuốm, ruộm, vẩn

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