墨水
mò shuǐ · HSK 6
ink
🖋️ 墨 (mò, ink/black) + 水 (shuǐ, water) = black water — liquid ink
The compound is literal: ink-stone pigment dissolved in water. Traditional Chinese ink starts as a solid stick (墨) ground on a stone with water (水) to produce the writing fluid.
墨 — black 黑 + earth 土
墨 is a semantic compound: 黑 (black) gives the meaning and 土 (earth) refers to the soil-like material. It originally referred to the black ink stick made from soot mixed with binders, used for writing and painting, and later extended to mean ink in general.
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.