Definitions
old rags
Etymology
About
袽 (rú) is a noun that historically referred to rags or worn-out clothing, particularly those used for caulking leaks or as padding. It is a phono-semantic compound formed by the semantic radical 衣 (yī) 'clothing' and the phonetic component 如 (rú). Although 如 usually means 'as' or 'like', here it simply gives the pronunciation. In classical Chinese, 袽 was largely restricted to maritime and maintenance contexts, appearing most famously in the I Ching, where it denotes old rags used to plug leaks in a boat. This precise technical sense prevented it from becoming a general term for tattered clothes worn by the poor. Its use therefore remained a learned, literary one, preserved in classical quotations rather than entering everyday speech as a common word for rags.
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