verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to wait for; to await (classical)
  2. 2 used in the compound surname Moqi (archaic)

Examples

Sì wǒ yú chéng yú
The classical line "俟我于城隅" means "waits for me at the corner of the city wall".

Tips

history
is essentially classical: modern Chinese says 等待 instead. The line quoted is from the Book of Songs. It is also read only in the rare compound surname 万俟. Built from the person radical and .
register
Literary and classical only — appears in old poetry and set phrases like 俟机, not in everyday speech.

Components

radical
rén
person
Side-person radical , the standing form of . A person is the one doing the waiting in .
phonetic
classical final particle
on the right supplies the sound frame for the sì reading. It is itself a classical sentence-final particle, fittingly paired here with a classical-only verb.

Stroke Order