About
辋 (wǎng), traditionally written as 輞, is a phono-semantic compound that originated in the context of transportation. The left side is the vehicle radical 车 (traditional 車, chē), which ties it to carts and carriages, and the right side 罔 (wǎng), meaning 'net' originally, serves as the phonetic. Historically, it designated the outer wooden rim of a spoked carriage wheel or the metal band that held the wooden parts together. As transport modernized, the character's meaning shifted to encompass the metal rims or rubber tires of automobiles and bicycles.
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