Origin

This character combines water on the left with the component 永 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for pronunciation rather than meaning. The water radical makes sense because swimming inherently involves water, so the character's meaning is established through that visual element. The 永 component contributes the sound value, helping readers know how to pronounce the character. Together, water plus this phonetic indicator creates a character that both shows what the action involves and hints at how it's pronounced.

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