Definitions

níng earwax

Etymology phono-semantic

ear

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

(traditional form ) is a phono-semantic compound: the left-side radical (ear) establishes the semantic domain of the ear, and the right-side component (traditional ) indicates its pronunciation. The character is virtually always encountered as a bound morpheme in the formal medical term 耵聍, which means cerumen or earwax. It was coined specifically to provide a precise written form for this ear-related secretion, and as a result, it has never developed any extended, figurative, or standalone meanings. Throughout its lexical history, has functioned exclusively as a specialized anatomical and clinical term.