conjunction

Meanings

  1. 1 (archaic) and; together with
  2. 2 (archaic) for the gaze to reach something

Examples

Tā de mùguāng wàng xiàng yuǎnfāng.
His gaze reached far into the distance.

Tips

history
is archaic and not used independently in modern Chinese. It pictures an eye with streaming tears and survives mainly as a building block inside characters such as 's traditional form and 怀's older relatives; you meet it only in classical glosses and etymology notes.
register
Archaic and lexicographic only. never appears as a standalone word in modern Chinese.

Components

radical
eye
The 'eye' on top is the indexing radical and the heart of the picture: a watching eye whose gaze 'reaches' its object.
semantic
shuǐ
water; tears
The water element below the eye reads as tears streaming down, reinforcing the image of an eye fixed on something far off.

Stroke Order