匯

A phono-semantic compound:

匚 (enclosure; container) — semantic component, suggests containment or collection

淮 (Huai River) — phonetic component, provides the pronunciation and reinforces the water-related meaning

The image conveyed is streams entering a bounded space and merging into a single flow.

The earliest meaning of 匯 is strictly hydrological: "multiple streams or currents flowing together into one body of water." This sense is preserved in classical expressions referring to river confluences.

From the idea of waters merging, the meaning expanded metaphorically to:

- people gathering

- resources pooling

- information being collected

- financial aggregation

This abstract usage is especially common in Modern Chinese.

회합 (匯合) — convergence

어휘 (語匯) — vocabulary

외환 (外匯) — foreign exchange

The phonetic 淮 no longer appears as a full water radical in 匯, but its historical role is crucial.

匯 is not interchangeable with 合; 合 emphasizes joining, while 匯 emphasizes flowing together into a system.

Related characters:

合 — to join; to combine

聚 — to gather (actively)

流 — to flow

會 — meeting; gathering

滙 (U+6ED9) — variant form (non-standard)