垂 appears in many literary expressions: 垂涎三尺 (drooling three feet - craving something), 名垂青史 (name hanging in green history - leaving a lasting legacy), 垂死 (on the verge of death).
Components
pictograph
垂chuí
hang down; droop
Originally a picture of a plant with branches drooping toward the ground over the earth radical. Modern strokes fuse the foliage into an overlay pattern that no longer splits into independent pieces, so the character reads as a single image of hanging or trailing. Indexed under Kangxi #32 土 via the buried base.
Filed under radical 土 (tǔ, #32) by convention. 土 is not a separate component in 垂, so no strokes are highlighted.
