矿泉水
kuàng quán shuǐ · HSK 4
mineral water
💧 矿泉水 = mineral (矿) + spring (泉) + water (水)
矿 means ore/mineral, 泉 means spring (the 水 radical sits under 白, suggesting water from a source), and 水 is plain water. Together: water from a mineral spring — i.e. bottled mineral water.
矿 — stone radical 石 + 广 phonetic
矿 is the simplified form of 礦. The 石 (stone) radical signals the meaning—rocks and minerals dug from the earth—while 广 serves as a simplified phonetic component. Originally it referred to raw ore, and by extension came to mean a mine or mineral deposit.
泉 — white 白 above water 水
泉 is a pictograph showing a spring: water (水) flowing out from an opening in a rock, with 白 on top representing the mouth of the spring. The original oracle bone form depicted water streaming from a hollow. Its core meaning, 'spring' or 'fountain,' has remained stable since ancient times.
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.