Origin

Water (shown by the three-dot radical on the left) combines with a sound hint on the right that suggests the pronunciation "hou." The character depicts the natural phenomenon of bubbles and foam, which are essentially trapped air or gas within water. By pairing the water radical with a phonetic component, the character efficiently conveys both the material substance (water) and how the word sounds when spoken.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).