Long-tailed monkeys, called 'yu', once roamed the southern hills.
Tips
history
Lives mainly in two place-names: 番禺 (a district of Guangzhou, attested since the Qin) and 封禺 (a mythical mountain in 《史记》). The 'long-tailed monkey' meaning is preserved in the 《说文》 gloss; the 'mid-morning hour' meaning shows up in 《梦溪笔谈》 and other Song-era natural history.
usage
禺 is also the key phonetic in a sizeable family: 偶 (pair / mate), 遇 (encounter), 寓 (reside), 愚 (foolish), 隅 (corner). Recognising the shared component makes a large set of mid-frequency words easier to memorise together.
register
Archaic / place-name use only — the third reading ǒu ('old variant of 偶') has been replaced by 偶 entirely. Modern speech doesn't use 禺 on its own outside the toponym Panyu.
Components
pictograph
禺yú
long-tailed monkey
Pictograph. The oracle-bone shape drew a monkey from above: head (甶-like top), body, and a long curling tail trailing down to the right. Indexed under Kangxi #114 禸 (the trailing-foot radical that captures the curled tail). Modern shape no longer transparently shows the monkey.
Filed under radical 禸 (róu, #114) by convention. 禸 is not a separate component in 禺, so no strokes are highlighted.
