About
The character 殆 originates as an expression of peril, its earliest sense being "danger" or "to endanger", a meaning derived from its structural composition which combines the semantic component 歹, indicative of bad fortune or death, with 台 serving primarily as a phonetic element. Over time, particularly from the Warring States period onward, its application shifted from denoting physical hazard to expressing a probabilistic estimation, coming to mean "approximately" or "almost", as in a situation that nearly reaches a certain state, thereby carrying an inherent sense of impending risk or closeness to a limit. This semantic evolution from concrete danger to abstract near-completion is retained in its modern usage, where it functions to convey that something is on the verge of happening or is almost certainly the case. The traditional form of the character remains identical to this historical construction, with no structural simplification altering its written form.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
他的努力殆無效果。
這場戰爭殆將結束。
他的健康狀況危殆。
我們的工作殆已完成。
如果再不採取行動，機會殆失。
經過多次試驗，成功殆在眼前。
公司的資源殆盡，必須尋找新的投資。
在經濟殆盡崩潰的邊緣，政府推出了新的刺激方案。