About
The character "脷" signifies the tongue in Yue dialects and is constructed as a semantic-phonetic compound, combining the "月" radical, which denotes flesh or body parts, with the phonetic component "利" to cue its dialectal pronunciation. Its etymology stems from the need to represent the spoken term for tongue through a character that aligns sound and meaning, following the standard principle of Chinese character formation. The meaning of "脷" has remained specific to the concept of the tongue since its creation, with no semantic shifts, and it continues to be used in its traditional form, comprising these consistent components.