How to Write 腌 (yān) — Meaning “To pickle / To salt / To cure”

Think of the left side 月 as "meat" and the right side 奄 as a lid covering it. Visualize a jar where meat is covered by salt or brine, and you are "covering meat" to pickle it — that is 腌.

The left radical 月 is narrow and upright, while the right part 奄 is wider. Be careful: 奄 is written with 大 on top, then 曰 (a horizontal box with a line inside), and a final curved stroke 乚. A common mistake is writing the bottom part as 电, which lacks the horizontal bar inside the 曰.

The right side of 腌 is 奄 (a cover shape with 大, 曰, and 乚), while 朔 has a right side that includes a 月 (moon) at the bottom, and 朕 has a right side that looks like 关 (two dots above a large 天). Their meanings differ: 腌 is pickling, 朔 relates to the new moon or north, and 朕 was an ancient word for "I" used by emperors.

腌 is commonly used in cooking and food preservation, appearing in words like 腌制 (to pickle), 腌菜 (pickled vegetables), and 腌肉 (cured meat). It is essential for describing traditional Chinese preserved foods, such as salted fish and pickled cabbage, which are staples in many regional cuisines. Note that 腌 can also be pronounced ā in the rare word 腌臜 (meaning dirty), but the main pronunciation for pickling is yān.

Common words containing 腌 include: 腌制 (yān zhì) — To pickle / To cure; 腌菜 (yān cài) — Pickled vegetables; 腌肉 (yān ròu) — Salted meat / Cured meat.