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驸 (fù), the simplified form of 駙, originally meant an extra horse harnessed beside the main draft horses in a carriage team. As a phono-semantic compound, it combines the semantic radical 马 (mǎ, horse) on the left, placing it in the domain of equines and transport, with the phonetic component 付 (fù) on the right indicating pronunciation. Over time, its primary use shifted from equine terminology to the royal title 驸马 (fùmǎ). This title first referred to the official overseeing the emperor's spare carriage horses, but later became the exclusive designation for the emperor's son-in-law, a meaning that eventually eclipsed the original sense of an auxiliary horse.
Etymology Hide
