邊

It is a phono-semantic compound, combining:

辵 (chwak/착, ‘to walk slowly, to go’) as the semantic element;

臱 (myeon, ‘unseen, hidden’) as the phonetic element.

Common compounds:

변방 (邊方) – frontier, border region;

주변 (周邊) – surroundings, vicinity;

해변 (海邊) – seashore, beach;

변두리 (邊頭里) – outskirts, fringe area;

변경 (邊境) – border, frontier;

변연 (邊緣) – edge, margin.

Always read as 변 in Korean (unlike Chinese where pronunciation can differ by context).

Still productive in modern Korean, especially in everyday words like 주변 and 해변.

Often carries the sense of being peripheral or marginal compared to a center (중앙 vs. 변두리)