steadily, gradually advancing, finally, barely
漸 centers on slow, incremental progress: moving forward steadily, step by step, until finally reaching a point, even if only barely.
漸 combines 氵 (water) with 斬, which likely contributes the sound. The water radical suggests gradual soaking or erosion, fitting the idea of slow, steady advance.
Water 氵 slowly cuts through even the hardest material, like a river carving a canyon. The right side 斬 (cut) reinforces the image of gradual, persistent progress.
For ゼン, picture a Zen monk patiently meditating as water drips steadily on a stone: Zen -> ゼン, and the water gradually wears the stone away.
gradual progress
gradual decrease; decline
gradual progress; steady advance
gradually; slowly; little by little; incrementally
eastward advance
recurrence relation; recurrence formula
gradual increase
climax (rhetoric); gradation
gradual enlightenment
Oligocene epoch
gradual; slow
bathyal zone; midnight zone; bathypelagic
gradually; by degrees
gradual decline
sagging market
asymptote
asymptotic freedom
asymptotic line
gradualism; slow-and-steady policy
gradual