沉稳
chén wěn · HSK 7
calm
🪨 chén wěn = sink + stable — heavy enough to sink, too steady to wobble
沉 means to sink or be heavy; 稳 means stable or steady. Together they describe someone with the gravity of a stone at the riverbed — grounded, calm, unflustered under pressure.
沉 — water 氵 + 冘 (phonetic, sinking figure)
Originally written 沈, this character combines the water radical 氵 with 冘, depicting a person sinking. It pictured an object or person submerged in water, giving the core meaning 'to sink.' From there it extended metaphorically to 'deep,' 'heavy,' and 'submerged in thought,' as in 沉默 (silent) or 沉重 (heavy).
稳 — grain 禾 + claw 爫 + work 工 + heart 心 (爫+工+心 = 急/隐 phonetic 㥯)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The grain radical 禾 on the left suggests grain being steady and balanced on a scale, while the right side 㥯 (claw over work over heart) supplies the sound. Originally written 穩, it conveyed the idea of grain settled firmly, extended to mean 'stable, steady, calm.'