About
The character "鳌" is a complex formation, originally comprising the component "黽", which depicted a large, legless aquatic creature, combined with "敖", which primarily provided phonetic value but also carried connotations of roaming or grandeur, hinting at the creature's imposing nature. Its core meaning has consistently referred to a mythical giant sea turtle or turtle-like entity, often mentioned in legends as a colossus supporting the world or causing catastrophic floods when disturbed. Over centuries, this potent mythological image was borrowed to develop a prominent figurative meaning; becoming the "鳌" that the top candidate in the imperial palace examination was said to stand upon, thereby giving rise to the idiom "to take the head of the Ao" meaning to come first in the examinations and, by extension, to be the very best. This semantic expansion from a mythical beast to a metaphor for scholarly supremacy represents the character’s primary conceptual journey, while its traditional structural integrity, built around the "黽" component, has remained largely stable in its orthographic representation.
Example Sentences Hide
传说东海有神鳌。
这座鳌山是元宵灯会的亮点。
他力大无穷，仿佛能独占鳌头。
公园里新立了一座巨鳌的雕塑。
古代神话中，鳌曾背负着仙山。
在竞赛中独占鳌头是他的目标。
这座岛屿的形状好似一只浮出海面的鳌。
他的研究在学术界已占据鳌头多年。