漠

Phono-semantic compound:

水 (수, “water”) - semantic, indicating relation to water, expanses, or natural features.

莫 (막, “none, vast, dark”) - phonetic, provides sound and suggests vastness or absence.

Thus originally depicting a boundless expanse like water, later extended to vast emptiness, desert.

沙漠 (사막) — desert

漠然 (막연) — vague, indistinct

寂漠 (적막) — lonely, desolate, silent

漠漠 (막막) — vast, boundless

The character emphasizes vastness combined with emptiness — different from 廣 (“broad, wide”) which stresses extent, or 荒 (“wasteland, barren”) which stresses barrenness.

In Classical Chinese, it often conveys “silent and vast,” as in “漠然無聲” (“silent and boundless”).