液 - A LIQUID Is a Collection of Drops

Readings & Meanings:

エキ

liquid

Common Usage:

血液型占い

液体

体液

Examples:

血液型占いで彼との相性を調べた。

その謎の液体はとてもいい匂いがした。

警察の検査官は被害者の体から犯人の体液を検出した。

Translations:

I checked my compatibility with him in the blood-type-horoscope.

The mysterious liquid emitted a very nice smell.

The police investigator found the perpetrator's bodily fluids* on the victim's body.

*usually 体液 means sperm.

Radical:

San-zui (the three-droplet form of 水) on the left.

The phonetic on the right (液) gives a sense of "pile up."

If you collect enough drops, they will pool into a liquid.

Bonus: Blood-Type Horoscope

血液型占い.

Do you know your blood type? If you're an American, you probably don't, or it's not in recent memory. But if you're Japanese, you definitely now your blood type, and you know what it means.

In Japan, the blood type is regarded as more important to personality than the stars under which you were born. Western-style horoscopes, like Pisces, Sagittarius, etc., are not as popular as blood-type horoscopes. Especially for your compatibility tests.

The girl in the example sentence is typical of this mentality. If she's an A-type, she probably wants another A type. Although when I was in Japan, I think O-type was made very popular because of an O-type character in a popular ドラマ. See below for a short chart of types, taken from Wikipedia.

Japanese Blood Type Personality Chart

Type A
Best Traits: Earnest, creative, sensible, calm.
Worst Traits: Fastidious, overearnest.
Type B
Best Traits: Wild, a doer, cheerful.
Worst Traits: Selfish, irresponsible, arrogant.
Type AB
Best Traits: Cool, controlled, rational.
Worst Traits: Critical, indecisive, unforgiving.
Type O
Best Traits: Agreeable, sociable, an optimist.
Worst Traits: Vain, careless, ruthless, cruel.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_blood_type_theory_of_personality
http://www.kanjinetworks.com/indices/radindex.html
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/node/kanji/e.htm