About
The character 俑 is a phono-semantic compound with specific historical and archaeological meaning. The left component is the person radical 亻, placing it in the semantic category of human figures. The right component, 甬, provides the phonetic value "yong". Historically, it referred to the wooden or ceramic figurines buried with the dead to serve them in the afterlife, a practice that replaced earlier human sacrifice. The term is most famously seen in 兵马俑 (bingmayong), the Terracotta Army. Its use is strictly limited to such funerary effigies, not ordinary dolls or statues.
Etymology Hide
