眣

dié

失 + 目

Definitions

dié prominent eyes

Etymology

About

眣 is a phono-semantic compound combining the semantic radical 目 (mù, 'eye') and the phonetic component 失 (shī). The eye radical roots the character in the domain of vision and ocular appearance, while the phonetic 失 supplies the pronunciation but not its meaning 'to lose'. The character originally denoted either the visual action of looking or the physical trait of having bulging, prominent eyes. Over time, it faded from everyday use and survived only in rare, specialized classical texts to capture very specific facial expressions or visual actions. Its functions were gradually taken over by more common characters that also feature the eye radical.