炼油
liàn​yóu

oil refining

炼 liàn smelt Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 柬 represents the sound. Simplified form of 煉.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
柬
柬 Sound component
jiǎn letter

Shorthand derived from the cursive form of the traditional 柬 component.

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

油 yóu oil

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 由 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

由
由 Sound component
yóu cause

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyuw[l][u] flow(ing)

說文解字

《說文》：“油，水。出武陵孱陵西，東南〔北〕入江。从水，由聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

煉 liàn smelt Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 柬 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
柬
柬 Sound component
jiǎn letter

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡ·reːns

說文解字

《說文》：“煉，鑠治金也。从火，柬聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)