染

Translingual

Han character

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))

Derived characters

• 媣, 𫽦, 蒅, 𩃵

References

• 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

---

Chinese

trad.		染
simp. #		染

Glyph origin

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; water radical moved up.

Etymology

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).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): rǎn (ran³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄖㄢˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): jim⁵
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): liám / jiám / ní

  (Teochew, Peng'im): riam² / ni²

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: rǎn
    • Zhuyin: ㄖㄢˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: rǎn
    • Wade–Giles: jan³
    • Yale: rǎn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: raan
    • Palladius: жань (žanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ʐän²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: jim⁵
    • Yale: yíhm
    • Cantonese Pinyin: jim⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: yim⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jiːm¹³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou, Taipei, Xiamen)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: liám
    • Tâi-lô: liám
    • Phofsit Daibuun: liarm
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /liam⁵⁵⁴/
    • IPA (Taipei, Xiamen): /liam⁵³/
  • (Hokkien: Kaohsiung, Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: jiám
    • Tâi-lô: jiám
    • Phofsit Daibuun: jiarm
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /d͡ziam⁵³/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /ziam⁴¹/
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ní
    • Tâi-lô: ní
    • Phofsit Daibuun: nie
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /nĩ⁵⁵⁴/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /nĩ⁴¹/
    • IPA (Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Taipei): /nĩ⁵³/

Note:

• liám/jiám - literary;
• ní - vernacular.

• (Teochew)
  • Peng'im: riam² / ni²
  • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: jiám / ní
  • Sinological IPA ^(key): /d͡ziam⁵²/, /ni⁵²/

Note:

• riam2 - literary;
• ni2 - vernacular.

---

• Dialectal data

Variety	Location	edit 染
Mandarin	Beijing	/ʐan²¹⁴/
	Harbin	/ʐan²¹³/
	Tianjin	/ian¹³/ /ʐan¹³/
	Jinan	/ʐã⁵⁵/
	Qingdao	/iã⁵⁵/
	Zhengzhou	/ʐan⁵³/
	Xi'an	/ʐã⁵³/
	Xining	/ʐã⁵³/
	Yinchuan	/ʐan⁵³/
	Lanzhou	/ʐɛ̃n⁴⁴²/
	Ürümqi	/ʐan⁵¹/
	Wuhan	/nan⁴²/
	Chengdu	/zan⁵³/
	Guiyang	/zan⁴²/
	Kunming	/ʐã̠⁵³/
	Nanjing	/ʐaŋ²¹²/
	Hefei	/ʐæ̃²⁴/ /ʐən²⁴/
Jin	Taiyuan	/zæ̃⁵³/
	Pingyao	/ʐɑŋ⁵³/
	Hohhot	/ʐæ̃⁵³/
Wu	Shanghai	/ȵi²³/ /zø²³/
	Suzhou	/ȵiɪ³¹/
	Hangzhou	/zz̩ʷõ¹³/
	Wenzhou	/ȵi³⁵/
Hui	Shexian	/ne³⁵/
	Tunxi	/ȵiɛ²⁴/
Xiang	Changsha	/yẽ⁴¹/
	Xiangtan	/iẽ⁴²/
Gan	Nanchang	/ȵiɛn²¹³/
Hakka	Meixian	/ŋiam⁵³/
	Taoyuan	/ŋiɑm⁵⁵/
Cantonese	Guangzhou	/jim²³/
	Nanning	/jim²⁴/
	Hong Kong	/jim¹³/
Min	Xiamen (Hokkien)	/liam⁵³/ /ni⁵³/
	Fuzhou (Eastern Min)	/nieŋ³²/
	Jian'ou (Northern Min)	/niŋ²¹/
	Shantou (Teochew)	/ziam⁵³/ /nĩ⁵³/
	Haikou (Hainanese)	/zam²¹³/ /ni²¹³/

---

• Middle Chinese: nyemX, nyemH

Rime
Character	染	染
Reading #	1/2	2/2
Initial (聲)	日 (38)	日 (38)
Final (韻)	鹽 (153)	鹽 (153)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Open	Open
Division (等)	III	III
Fanqie	而琰切	而豔切
Baxter	nyemX	nyemH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ȵiᴇmX/	/ȵiᴇmH/
Pan Wuyun	/ȵiɛmX/	/ȵiɛmH/
Shao Rongfen	/ȵʑjæmX/	/ȵʑjæmH/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/ȵiamX/	/ȵiamH/
Li Rong	/ȵiɛmX/	/ȵiɛmH/
Wang Li	/ȵʑĭɛmX/	/ȵʑĭɛmH/
Bernard Karlgren	/ȵʑi̯ɛmX/	/ȵʑi̯ɛmH/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	rǎn	ràn
Expected Cantonese Reflex	jim5	jim6

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*C.n[a]mʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*njomʔ/, /*njoms/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	染
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	rǎn
Middle Chinese	‹ nyemX ›
Old Chinese	/*C.n[a]mʔ/
English	to dye
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	染	染
Reading #	1/2	2/2
No.	10790	10791
Phonetic component	染	染
Rime group	談	談
Rime subdivision	3	3
Corresponding MC rime	冉	染
Old Chinese	/*njomʔ/	/*njoms/

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 染

1. to dye
2. be contagious
3. to infect

Compounds

(deprecated template usage)

---

Japanese

Kanji

染

(grade 6 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. dye, color, paint, stain, print

Readings

• Go-on: ねん (nen)
• Kan-on: ぜん (zen)
• Kan’yō-on: せん (sen, Jōyō)
• 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)

---

Korean

Hanja

染 • (yeom) (hangeul 염, revised yeom, McCune–Reischauer yŏm, Yale yem)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

---

Vietnamese

Han character

(deprecated template usage) 染 (nhuộm, nhẹm, nhiễm, nhuốm, ruộm, vẩn)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.