How to Write 茚 (yìn) — Meaning “indene”

Imagine a grass plant (艹) growing on top of a stamp (印), and this stamp marks chemicals with indene. Or think of "grass stamp" as a visual pun for indene, since the character sounds like yìn.

Write the top grass radical (艹) first: horizontal, vertical, vertical, horizontal. Then write the bottom part 印: start with the left side (short left-falling stroke, horizontal-right-hook), then right side (horizontal-right-fold, vertical). Common mistakes include making the top grass too wide or the bottom 印 too tall; keep them balanced with the grass covering about one third.

茚 has bottom component 印 (stamp), while 兹 has bottom 玄 (dark, mysterious) and 艻 has bottom 力 (power). Visually, 茚's lower half looks like a seal, whereas 兹 has more strokes and 艻 is simpler. In use, 茚 is a chemical term, but 兹 means 'this' or 'now', and 艻 is a plant name.

茚 appears mainly in scientific chemistry terms like 茚满 (indane), 茚三酮 (ninhydrin), and 茚地那韦 (indinavir, an HIV drug). It is not used in everyday conversation. A cultural note: ninhydrin (茚三酮) is famous in forensic science for revealing latent fingerprints on paper.

Common words containing 茚 include: 茚满 (yìn mǎn) — indane; 茚三酮 (yìn sān tóng) — ninhydrin; 茚地那韦 (yìn dì nà wéi) — indinavir.