Definitions

Chinese oriole

Etymology phono-semantic

bird

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

is a phono-semantic compound: the bird radical on the right indicates the semantic category of 'bird', while the left component gives the pronunciation. Its traditional form uses the more complex phonetic with the radical . The character denotes the oriole, a family of brightly colored, vocal birds frequently celebrated in classical poetry for their yellow plumage and melodic songs. The meaning is confined to this bird, most often encountered in the compound for yellow oriole, and has no extended abstract senses.