锡
xī · HSK 7
tin
🥫 钅 metal radical + 易 (easy) = the soft, easy metal: tin; xī sounds like she
The 钅 radical marks metals, and 易 (yì, easy) hints at tin being soft and low-melting. The same character also means to bestow or grant, as a ruler hands down a gift.
锡 — metal radical 钅 + 易 (yì) phonetic
A semantic-phonetic compound: the metal radical 钅 signals a metal, while 易 supplies the sound (historically close to xī). 锡 originally meant the metal tin, a soft silvery element used in bronze alloys. The character has retained this core meaning since ancient times.