炒める
いためる · itameru · JLPT N3 · verb-ichidan
to stir-fry
🍳🥢 itameru sounds like eat a meal: stir-fry it fast, then eat a meal
The kanji 炒 is 火 (fire) + 少 (a little): a little time over high fire, which is how stir-frying works. Same sound as 痛める (to hurt), so keep the tossing quick or the food gets damaged.
炒 — fire radical 火 + 少 (few/phonetic)
炒 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The fire radical 火 on the left signals cooking with heat, while 少 (shǎo) on the right hints at the pronunciation. It originally described stir-frying small amounts of food quickly over a flame, the meaning it still carries today.