嘤 (yīng) · (onomatopoeia) the chirp of a bird; a soft,…

Meanings

1 (onomatopoeia) the chirp of a bird; a soft, quavering cry
2 (internet slang) a whimper or pitiful little sob, used to feign cuteness

Characters

嘤

yīng

(onom.) chirp; whimper

Examples

HSK 5

林中传来鸟儿嘤嘤的叫声。

Lín zhōng chuánlái niǎor yīng yīng de jiàoshēng.

The chirping of birds came from the forest.

HSK 6

嘤嘤嘤，你怎么不理我？

Yīng yīng yīng, nǐ zěnme bù lǐ wǒ?

Whimper whimper whimper, why are you ignoring me?

Tips

register

Classical Chinese poetry used 嘤嘤 for birdsong (《诗经·小雅·伐木》: '伐木丁丁，鸟鸣嘤嘤' - 'chop chop go axes, chirp chirp go birds'). Modern Chinese internet culture revived 嘤嘤嘤 as a cutesy fake-crying noise, especially among young women and in anime fan communities - equivalent to English 'sniffle sniffle' or 'wahh'.

memory

口 (mouth) plus 婴 (yīng, baby) - the sound a baby (or a baby bird) makes from its mouth. The phonetic 婴 also gives you the pronunciation.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

On the left, 口 marks 嘤 as a sound coming from a mouth - here a chirp or whimper. Sharing the radical with 唱, 鸣 and 哭 places it in the family of vocal-emission characters.

phonetic

婴 yīng

infant

Supplies the sound yīng directly with no tonal drift. The infant meaning even nudges the semantics, since 嘤 often pictures the soft, baby-like cry feigned in cute internet usage.