Definitions

flying high; ambition

Etymology

Depicts a bird () with a line on its neck to either indicate a crane's long neck or loudness of its call. Based on the original meaning "crane", now written as . The meaning later shifted to "very high".

About

The character is an ideograph formed by , a short-tailed bird, with an added horizontal stroke across its neck. This stroke likely indicates the crane's long neck or the power of its call. Originally meaning "crane", now written , later adopted the meaning "very high" or "soaring". Although it is rarely seen as an independent character today, it appears frequently as the phonetic and semantic core in traditional characters like , bringing both the pronunciation and the image of high flight.

Etymology Hide

Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern