Definitions

xiù old variant of 袖[xiù]

Etymology

About

is a historical variant of , both meaning 'sleeve'. It is a top-to-bottom phono-semantic compound: the lower component is the clothing radical (yī), and the upper part is a phonetic element derived from (xiù). Originally, this vertical arrangement denoted the sleeve of a robe. Over time, it was supplanted by the structurally simpler left-to-right character , which pairs the clothing radical with the phonetic (yóu). Today, survives only as an archaic orthographic variant.