About
The character 颡 is a phono-semantic compound: the right-side component 页 (traditional 頁) is a pictograph of a human head, marking the semantic domain of the head or face, while the left-side component 桑 supplies the pronunciation sāng or sǎng. Though 桑 originally represents a mulberry tree, it acts here only for its sound. The character means the forehead or upper part of the face. It appears often in classical anatomical and descriptive texts, but in modern usage is largely confined to formal literary contexts or set expressions about the head.
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