榄 (lǎn) · olive

Meanings

1 olive

Characters

榄

lǎn

olive

Examples

HSK 6

广东人爱吃橄榄。

Guǎngdōng rén ài chī gǎnlǎn.

Cantonese people love eating Chinese olives.

HSK 7-9

他在树下捡了几颗榄仁。

Tā zài shù xià jiǎn le jǐ kē lǎn rén.

He picked up a few olive kernels under the tree.

Tips

usage

榄 rarely stands alone - it's a bound morpheme appearing mainly in 橄榄 (gǎnlǎn, 'olive'), 榄仁 (lǎnrén, 'olive kernel/Indian almond'), 榄香 (lǎnxiāng, olive incense), and 青榄 (qīnglǎn, 'green Chinese olive'). The 'olive branch' diplomatic image in Chinese is 橄榄枝 (gǎnlǎnzhī).

memory

Radical 木 (tree) on the left flags it as a kind of tree/fruit; the right side 览 gives the sound lǎn.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left tree radical - the indexing element, pictograph of a tree with branches and roots. Marks 榄 as botanical: olive trees, the source of 橄榄 olives. Same family as 树 tree, 林 forest, 桃 peach, 梅 plum, 枝 branch.

phonetic

览 lǎn

to view; survey (here phonetic)

Right 览 supplies the sound directly: lǎn → lǎn, no shift at all. Contributes no meaning; the olive plant is just 'the lǎn-sounding tree.' Almost always seen bound in 橄榄 olive - rarely on its own. The traditional 欖 used the much denser 覽 on the right; simplification trimmed both.