About
The character "横" is structured with the wood radical 木 on the left and the phonetic component 黄 on the right, forming a phono-semantic compound that initially referred to horizontal beams or crosspieces made of wood. Its primary meaning of "horizontal" or "crosswise" later extended to include figurative senses such as "perverse" or "unrestrained", particularly when pronounced "hèng", while the pronunciation "héng" retained the spatial connotation. This semantic expansion allowed the character to describe actions like traversing or lying across, moving from a concrete physical description to abstract behavioral attributes.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
这条河很宽。
请横向移动这个箱子。
不要横穿马路，很危险。
螃蟹是横着走路的动物。
那座新建的大桥横跨大江两岸。
事情本来很顺利，谁知又横生枝节。
他对别人的工作总是横加指责。
在历史的洪流中，个人命运往往显得横逆莫测。