Is the water radical sometimes three strokes and sometimes two strokes?


凍, does it have the water radical on the left? Why is this three strokes in
some words and two strokes in others?




While 「氵」 is indeed an abbreviation of 「水」 ( _water_ ), it is rather
unfortunate that the colloquial name of 「冫」 in both Chinese and Japanese
implies that 「冫」 has something to do with _water_. To emphasise, **「冫」 does
not have anything to do with _water_** , unless the appearance of 「冫」 is due
to graphical corruption from 「氵」.

* * *

`[西周](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Zhou)  
[金](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_bronze_inscriptions)  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/TufWF.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/TufWF.png)  
⿱一丞卣  
[集成5318](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=5318&jgwfl=)``[秦](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_dynasty)  
[簡](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_and_wooden_slips)  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DcdHO.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DcdHO.png)  
日乙227 冬  
[睡虎地秦簡](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuihudi_Qin_bamboo_texts)``今  
[楷](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script)  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tByCw.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tByCw.png)  
  
`

「冫」 was originally a picture of _forged metal plates_ , now written as 「鉼」
([Zhengzhang
OC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Zhengzhang_\(1981%E2%80%931995\)):
**/*peŋʔ/** ). It was later borrowed to represent the
[morpheme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme) now written as 「冰」 (
**/*pŋrɯŋ/** , _ice_ ) via the [rebus
principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebus#Rebus_principle).

As a stand-alone character, 「冫」 thus represents the two morphemes

  * [鉼]{へい}, _metal (plates)_

  * [冰]{ひょう} ( _Shinjitai_ : 氷), _ice_

* * *

In accordance with how Chinese characters work, as a character component, 「冫」
may impart either a meaning hint, a sound hint, or both a meaning and sound
hint to the character it is part of. These meaning and sound hints are taken
from the morphemes that it represents; that is, if you see 「冫」 as part of a
character 「Ｘ」, you should be thinking to yourself about one of the following:

  * Ｘ sounds like **へい**
  * Ｘ sounds like **ひょう**
  * Ｘ has something to do with _metal (plates)_
  * Ｘ has something to do with _ice_
  * Ｘ both sounds like **へい** and has something to do with _metal (plates)_
  * Ｘ both sounds like **ひょう** and has something to do with _ice_

**Examples:**

  * 冶 - _to smelt metal_
  * 匀 - _ancient weight measurement_ , now written as 「鈞」
  * 金 - **きん** , _metal_ , compound of 「冫」 ( _metal plates_ ), semantic 「王」 ( _metal battle weapon_ > _power/authority_ > _king_ ) and phonetic [「今」](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=84) (also **きん** ). See [What is the etymology of the kanji 金?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/65883/what-is-the-etymology-of-the-kanji-%e9%87%91/65886#65886)
  * 冷 - _cold_
  * 冬 - _winter_
  * 凍 - _freeze_
  * 馮 - **びょう** , **ひょう**

* * *

