About
褊 is a phono-semantic compound with the clothing radical 衤 (衣) on the left and 扁 'flat' on the right as the phonetic. It originally described garments that were narrow or tight-fitting. The meaning later broadened to denote narrow-mindedness or pettiness, a shift from physical attribute to psychological trait that reflects how concrete radical categories often serve as a basis for figurative extension.
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