About
The character "颃", whose traditional form is "頏", is structurally composed of the phonetic element "亢" and the semantic element "頁", the latter denoting a head or neck, which points to its original meaning of the throat or nape. In classical usage, it functioned as a noun for this body part, but over centuries its independent application faded, and it became almost exclusively employed in the binome "颉颃", where it carries the verbal sense of flying upward or being in contention. The simplified form maintains the same structural relationship, with "页" standing in for "頁" as the meaning component.
Etymology Hide
