沉

Etymology & Components

The Chinese character 沉 (chén) is composed of two parts: the radical 水 (shuǐ), which means "water", and the phonetic component 沈 (chén), which means "to sink". The character 沉 can therefore be understood as "to sink in water".The earliest known use of the character 沉 dates back to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC), when it was used in oracle bone inscriptions. In these inscriptions, the character 沉 was used to represent the concept of "sinking" or "submerging". Over time, the character 沉 came to be used in a wider variety of contexts, including to describe the sinking of ships, the drowning of people, and the settling of sediment.The character 沉 is also used in a number of idioms and proverbs. For example, the idiom 沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn) means "to cause fish to sink and geese to fall", and is used to describe a woman of great beauty. The proverb 沉舟侧畔千帆过 (chén zhōu cèpàn qiān fān guò) means "a thousand sails pass by the side of a sunken ship", and is used to advise people not to dwell on past failures.The character 沉 is a versatile character with a rich history and a wide range of meanings. It is an important character for HSK learners to master, as it is used in a variety of everyday contexts.