晃 (huàng): to sway

Meanings

1 to sway
2 to shake
3 to wander about

Characters

晃

huàng

to sway; to shake

Examples

地震的时候，整栋楼都在晃。

Dìzhèn de shíhòu, zhěng dòng lóu dōu zài huàng.

During the earthquake, the whole building was shaking.

别晃椅子了！

Bié huàng yǐzi le!

Stop shaking the chair!

他整个下午都在外面晃悠。

Tā zhěnggè xiàwǔ dōu zài wàimiàn huàngyou.

He spent the whole afternoon just wandering around outside.

Tips

mistakes

晃 has two readings. huàng is the physical 'to sway, shake, rock' (摇晃, 晃动); the sister reading huǎng means 'to dazzle / flash past' (晃眼, 一晃). Context picks which.

Components

radical

日 rì

sun

Sun radical on top, also the indexing radical for 晃. The original sense was 'sun shining brightly', from which came both 'dazzle' and the metaphorical 'shake, sway, flash past', like the unsteady glint of sun on moving water. The same radical sits in 明, 早, 时, 暗.

phonetic

光 guāng

light

Bottom 光 supplies the sound with a regular velar drift, and also adds a semantic echo: 'light' under the sun fits 'dazzling brightness'. So 晃 is a textbook phonetic-plus-semantic doubling, with the 'sway, swing' sense extending from flickering bright reflections.