涼

The core meaning relates to coolness — especially a pleasant coolness after heat. By extension it can describe light or thin garments suitable for summer.

A phono-semantic compound consisting of:

水 — semantic component, indicating relation to water or coolness, suggests freshness and temperature;

京 — phonetic component, providing the sound (량 / liáng).

The idea is of water-associated coolness — a natural, refreshing chill.

A notable variant replaces the water radical with the ice radical 冫, producing 凉 (U+51C9). This form emphasizes coldness more directly.

청량 (淸涼 / 淸凉) — cool and refreshing

양복 (涼服) — summer clothing

량감 (涼感) — sensation of coolness

In modern Korean, the adjective 시원하다 is usually written in Hangul, but Sino-compounds preserve 涼.

In Korea, 涼 is considered the standard Hanja form (per major lexicographic authorities), but 凉 is widely seen in place names and older encoding systems.

A well-known Korean example:

청량리 (淸凉里) — Cheongnyangni (district in Seoul)

Interestingly, in older Korean encoding standards (완성형), 凉 was included while 涼 was not, contributing to the popularity of the ice-radical form in signage and printing.

The dual existence of 涼 and 凉 reflects historical simplification and encoding practices rather than semantic difference.

In Korean cultural memory, the Cheongnyangni spelling with 凉 illustrates how character encoding influenced orthography.

The semantic field centers on summer coolness, not winter cold.

涼 differs from related “cold” characters:

冷 — cold (objective temperature)

寒 — cold (seasonal or climatic cold)

凍 — frozen

冰 — ice

It may also metaphorically imply emotional coolness or detachment.

Classical citations:

《詩經》 (The Book of Songs)

「有風其涼」

“There is wind, and it is cool.”

《楚辭》 (The Songs of Chu)

「涼風至」

“The cool wind arrives.”

These examples show its early poetic association with seasonal wind and refreshing climate.