Definitions
prominent eyes
Etymology
About
The character 眣 is a phono-semantic compound that describes a visual action or physical appearance, specifically bulging eyes. Its left component, the radical 目 (mù), meaning "eye", places it within the semantic category of vision and ocular features. The right component, 失 (shī), acts solely as the phonetic indicator, contributing the pronunciation but not its own meaning of loss or failure. Over time, this character became rare, surviving mainly in specialized classical texts that describe particular facial expressions or visual acts, as more common characters with the eye radical absorbed its nuanced meanings.
Etymology Hide
