Life is fleeting, no longer than the wink of an eye.
Tips
usage
Modern Chinese knows 臾 only as half of the literary compound 须臾 - 'a brief moment / an instant'. It's stylish in classical prose, lyric quotations and modern formal writing; spoken usage is rare. The most famous occurrence is 姚鼐's 《登泰山记》 - 须臾成五彩 (the sunrise turned five-colored 'in an instant').
register
Literary register. As a surname (capitalized 臾), it's extremely rare; you may see it in classical contexts only.
Components
ideograph
臾yú
instant; a moment
Compound graph: 臼 (a mortar / hollowed shape, also a pair of hands grasping) above an 人-like element below. The original sense, per the 《说文》, was 'to seize / pull a captive in both hands' - extended to 'the briefest stretch of time it takes to grab someone'. Indexed under Kangxi #134 臼.
Filed under radical 臼 (jiù, #134) by convention. 臼 is not a separate component in 臾, so no strokes are highlighted.
