含糊
hán hu · HSK 7
vague
🌫️ 含 hold-in-mouth + 糊 paste/blur = words held like mush, neither clear nor committed = vague
含 — mouth 口 + 今 (jīn, phonetic)
含 is a phono-semantic compound. The 口 (mouth) component gives the meaning — holding something in the mouth — while 今 supplies the sound. From the literal sense of keeping something inside the mouth, it extended to mean 'contain', 'include', or 'hold within'.
糊 — rice 米 + 胡 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 米 (rice) gives the meaning, since 糊 originally referred to rice paste or congee used as glue. 胡 supplies the sound. The meaning later extended to 'paste,' 'to stick,' and figuratively 'muddled' or 'blurred,' as in 糊涂.