蜜

Translingual

Character history

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): phonetic 宓 + semantic 虫 (“small insect”)

Han character

蜜 (radical 142 虫+8, 14 strokes, cangjie input 十心竹戈 (JPHI), four-corner 3013₆)

1. honey
2. sweet
3. nectar

References

• KangXi: page 1085, character 36
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 33143
• Dae Jaweon: page 1553, character 6
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2866, character 7
• Unihan data for U+871C

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Cantonese

Hanzi

蜜 (Yale mat6)

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Japanese

Kanji

蜜

Readings

• On: みつ (mitsu), びつ (bitsu)
• Kun: みつ (mitsu), はちみつ (hachimitsu)

Compounds

• 花蜜 (kamitsu): nectar

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Korean

Hanja

蜜 (hangeul 밀, revised mil, McCune-Reischauer mil, Yale mil)

1. (꿀 밀, kkul): honey

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Mandarin

Hanzi

蜜 (pinyin mì (mi4), Wade-Giles mi⁴)

1. honey

   蜂蜜 ("honey"), 蜜蜂 ("bee")

2. the colour of honey; honey-coloured

   蜜色 ("colour of honey")

3. beeswax

   蜜燭/蜜烛 ("candle")

4. sweet

   甜蜜 ("sweet, happy"), 水蜜桃 ("honey peach"), 甜言蜜語/甜言蜜语 ("sweet words and honeyed phrases; cajolery")

5. (PSM of English miss) mistress, young girl

   小蜜 ("mistress"), 閨蜜/闺蜜 ("girlfriend (of female)")

Etymology

Modern mì, from Middle Chinese mjit, from Late Old Chinese *mjit ~ *mit, from Proto-Tocharian *ḿət(ə) (compare Tocharian B mit (“honey”)), from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (“mead”).

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Min Nan

Hanzi

蜜 (POJ bi̍t)

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Vietnamese

Han character

蜜 (mật)