清晨
qīng chén · HSK 5
early morning
🌅 清 = clear + 晨 = dawn; clear dawn = early morning
清 means clear/pure (water radical 氵 + 青 qīng for blue-green). 晨 means dawn (sun 日 over 辰 chén, the time radical). Together: the clear, fresh part of dawn — early morning.
清 — water 氵 + 青 (azure/blue-green, phonetic)
清 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The water radical 氵 gives the meaning—originally clear, unmuddied water—while 青 (qīng, azure) supplies the sound and reinforces the image of pure blue-green water. The sense later broadened from 'clear water' to 'clear, pure, clean' in general.