Definitions

yóng (literary) (of a fish) to stick its mouth out of the water
(literary) (onom.) response chant, echoing another's chanted words

Etymology phono-semantic

mouth

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

combines the mouth radical () on the left, signaling an oral action, with the phonetic element on the right. Its original meaning was the act of fish rising to the water's surface to breathe with mouths agape, a strikingly descriptive term. Over time, in literary usage, it broadened to describe people echoing or responding to one another, often found in classical works to portray voices answering in agreement or following a speaker's lead.

Etymology Hide

Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern