A line from the Book of Songs: 'Ah, how lush and beautiful it is!'
Tips
history
猗 is archaic and not used independently in modern Chinese; it appears as an exclamation of praise in the Book of Songs (《诗经》). The modern admiring exclamation is 啊 and the modern word for lush is 茂盛.
register
Classical only — confined to early poetry and etymology notes, never used in modern speech or writing.
犭 is the dog radical 犬 in left-side form. It reflects an original animal sense; the character was borrowed for the exclamation, so the radical no longer carries the meaning.
