气温
qìwēn · HSK 2
temperature
🌡️ 气温 = 气 (air) + 温 (warm) — air's warmth
气 means air or gas, 温 means warm or temperature. Together they name the warmth of the air around you — what a thermometer reads outdoors.
气 — steam/vapor radical 气
Originally a pictograph of rising vapor or clouds drifting in the sky, depicting curling streams of air. The character came to mean breath, air, and by extension vital energy or 'qi.' The simplified form 气 keeps the original outline; the traditional 氣 added 米 (rice) to suggest steam rising from cooking grain.