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As a phono-semantic compound, 欷 combines the radical 欠 (qiàn), which depicts a person with an open mouth and indicates actions like breathing, yawning, or oral exhalation, with the phonetic 希 (xī). Its primary meaning is to sob, gasp, or heave a sorrowful sigh, actions tied to vocal grief. The character appears frequently in classical poetry and prose to describe intense sorrow, weeping, or lamentation, and its usage remains confined to this domain, never broadening into other semantic fields.
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