锅

The Chinese character 锅 (guō) for "pot" is composed of two parts: the radical 金 (jīn) for "metal" on the left, and the phonetic component 鬲 (lì) on the right. The radical 金 indicates that the character is related to metal objects, while the phonetic component 鬲 provides a clue to its pronunciation. The character 鬲 originally depicted a tripod cooking vessel with three legs, and it is still used in this sense in some contexts. Over time, the character 锅 came to be used more specifically for pots used for cooking, while the character 鬲 is now more commonly used in the sense of "cauldron" or "tripod". The combination of the radical 金 and the phonetic component 鬲 in the character 锅 thus reflects its meaning as a metal cooking pot.