About
The character "咦" is a linguistic construct primarily functioning as an interjection to express surprise or doubt, with its formation stemming from the combination of the semantic component "口" (mouth), indicating a sound made by the mouth, and the phonetic component "夷", which historically provided a clue to its pronunciation. While the character’s basic structure has remained consistent in its traditional form, its application has refined from a more general representation of sound to a specific exclamation conveying inquiry or mild astonishment in modern usage. This specialization in meaning represents a common path for interjections, which often originate from phonetic borrowing to capture spontaneous utterances before settling into a defined semantic role within the language.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
咦，你怎么了？
咦，这是什么东西？
咦，我的笔在哪里？
咦，今天为什么这么热？
咦，他居然忘记带钥匙。
咦，这本书的情节很吸引人。
咦，天空突然下起了大雨。
咦，为什么这个解决方案不被采纳？