冷水
lěng shuǐ · HSK 6
unboiled water
🥶💧 冷 = cold + 水 = water — cold water, the unboiled kind
In Chinese households, boiled water (开水) is the default drink. 冷水 is water that hasn't been boiled yet — and by extension, something not yet ready, like half-baked plans that need more heat.
冷 — ice radical 冫 + order 令
A semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 冫 (ice) supplies the meaning of coldness, while 令 (lìng, 'command/order') hints at the pronunciation. Originally referring to the chill of ice, 冷 broadened to mean cold in general, and figuratively cool, indifferent, or detached.
水 — pictograph of flowing water
水 is a pictograph depicting a stream of flowing water, with the central line representing the main current and the side strokes showing splashing droplets or ripples. In oracle bone script it was drawn even more clearly as a wavy vertical line with branches. It retains its original meaning of 'water' and also serves as a radical, often appearing in the compressed form 氵.