减/減 (Reduce/Subtract/Decrease/Diminish): What's it got to do with water? So here we have 冫+咸 (or 氵+咸) = 减(減).

减(減) means something along the lines of reduce/subtract/decrease/diminish or what have you. 

What has water got to do with this though?

Logically one would imagine 冫 (water) + 咸 (salty) = a reducing of flavor, thus giving reduce/subtract/etc.

ShuoWen: (說文解字):


  損也從水咸聲


Chinese Etymology


  Phonetic Signific, of water 氵水 - can pour out of - decrease


So what's the deal?

What's going on here?
I think both "減" and "咸" exists in the ancient times, but for certain reasons scholars like to use "咸" in place of "減".

損也,從水,咸聲 == It has the same meaning as '損', water as glyph component, and the same pronunciation as '咸'.

In 管子·宙合, which was written before the early Han Dynasty, it says "左操五音，右執五味，懷繩與准鉤，多備規軸，減 溜大成，是唯時德之節。 .... 減，盡也。溜，發也。 ...."