About
殇 (traditional 殤) is a phono-semantic compound character. The semantic radical 歹 indicates death, decay, or a bad end, marking the character as belonging to that conceptual domain. The traditional form uses 昜 as the phonetic element; the simplified version substitutes the right-hand part of 伤, a component that continues to suggest the pronunciation while visually aligning with injury-related words. Its primary meaning is to die before reaching adulthood, later extended to death in battle or any premature death. The unifying theme is an untimely end.
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