About
The character "野" originally depicted the conceptual divide between cultivated, settled land and the open, uncivilized country beyond it, a meaning still discernible in its structure. Its earliest form was composed of two distinct elements: 林, representing woods, and 土, representing earth, together conveying the notion of untamed terrain. This composition later stabilized into the form 埜, which itself evolved into the now-standard form 野 by incorporating the component 里, meaning a village or a unit of distance, juxtaposed with 予, which here likely functions phonetically. This structural shift reinforced the contrast between the ordered, human sphere of the village and the wild expanse outside it. Over time, while retaining its core meaning of fields or open country, its semantic field broadened to encompass related ideas such as being rustic, wild, undomesticated, or even rude, reflecting a cultural view of the wilderness as a space outside social and civilizational norms.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
我们去野外野餐。
那只野兽很可怕。
田野里有很多花。
他喜欢野生的动物。
野蛮的行为不被接受。
在荒野中生存很困难。
她的性格有点野。
这场足球赛踢得很野。