咻 (xiū) · whoosh; swoosh (sound of something moving fast)

Meanings

1 whoosh; swoosh (sound of something moving fast)
2 whizzing sound

Characters

咻

xiū

whoosh; swooshing sound

Examples

HSK 6

箭咻的一声飞了出去。

Jiàn xiū de yī shēng fēi le chūqù.

The arrow whooshed out.

HSK 7-9

子弹咻咻地从头顶飞过。

Zǐdàn xiū xiū de cóng tóudǐng fēiguò.

Bullets whizzed overhead.

Tips

usage

咻 imitates the sound of something moving through the air quickly - arrows, bullets, wind, etc. Often reduplicated as 咻咻 for repeated or continuous swooshing sounds. Common in novels and comics.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

The mouth radical on the left marks 咻 as a sound that issues from the mouth - a whoosh, a swoosh, an exhalation of effort or speed. Onomatopoeia chars cluster around 口 in Chinese: 哈 ha, 嘿 hey, 哎 alas, 哇 wow. 咻 fits squarely with these breath-out tags.

phonetic

休 xiū

to rest (here phonetic)

休 supplies the sound xiū unchanged - purely as a phonetic anchor. Its picture (a person leaning against a tree, resting) lends no semantic load to the whoosh-sound use. Same phonetic surfaces in 庥 shelter, 貅 mythical beast - all xiū syllables.