鉛

a soft, heavy metal with low melting point

A phono-semantic compound:

金 (금) — semantic component, indicating metal

㕣 (연) — phonetic component, supplying the sound (연 / qiān)

The structure straightforwardly denotes a specific kind of metal identified by its sound.

In Korean technical and industrial contexts, the metal is often written 연(鉛), especially in mining, metallurgy, and chemistry.

Common compounds:

연필 (鉛筆) — pencil

납중독 (鉛中毒) — lead poisoning

연광 (鉛鑛) — lead ore

연판 (鉛板) — lead plate/sheet

Semantic & scientific notes:

Chemical symbol: Pb (from Latin plumbum)

Properties: soft, malleable, dense, toxic

Historically used in pipes, pigments, bullets, and pencils (graphite core misnamed).

Despite the name 연필 (鉛筆), modern pencils do not contain lead.

Related metal characters:

金 — metal; gold

銀 — silver

鐵 — iron

銅 — copper

錫 — tin

Among these, 鉛 is notable for its historical ubiquity and modern health implications.

A common variant form 鈆 replaces 㕣 with 公, preserving the same pronunciation and meaning.