Definitions

to offer a sacrifice for rain

Etymology

To sacrifice  for rain  also provides the pronunciation

About

The character "雩" is structured with the semantic component 雨 (rain) above the phonetic component 于, directly indicating its early association with rain-related practices. Its etymology points to an ancient ritual for petitioning rainfall, a meaning central to its historical use. Over time, the character's application shifted from solely denoting this specific ceremony to occasionally appearing in contexts like toponyms or poetic descriptions of rain, though its compositional link to precipitation through the 雨 radical has remained consistent.

Etymology Hide

Oracle etymology image
Oracle (~1250-1000 BC)
Oracle etymology image
Oracle (~1250-1000 BC)
Oracle etymology image
Oracle (~1250-1000 BC)
Oracle etymology image
Oracle (~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze etymology image
Bronze Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Bronze etymology image
Bronze Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
Bronze etymology image
Bronze Late Warring States (~250 BC)
Seal etymology image
Seal Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)
Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern