About
The character "流" originally depicted water in motion, and its traditional form maintains a clear etymological structure, combining the water radical (氵) on the left with a phonetic component on the right derived from an element that once represented an upside-down newborn, conceptually linked to birth and emergence. This combination semantically grounded the character in the idea of a flowing stream, a meaning which has remained constant at its core. Over time, however, its application broadened significantly from describing the movement of liquids to encompass the movement or dissemination of anything considered intangible or collective, such as currents of air, the passing of time, the spread of ideas, or the classification of people into social or artistic groupings. This conceptual extension from a purely physical phenomenon to a range of abstract transmissions and categories demonstrates how its fundamental sense of directional movement was successfully adapted to map onto more complex human observations.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
河水在缓缓地流动。
这首歌现在很流行。
看到电影结尾，她流泪了。
这条河流经多个城市。
这个故事在民间流传了很久。
我的手机流量用完了。
他的英语说得很流利。
经济全球化导致资本和劳动力在国际间流动。