屿 (yǔ): islet

Meanings

1 islet
2 small island

Characters

屿

yǔ

islet, small island

Examples

鼓浪屿是厦门著名的小岛。

Gǔ làng yǔ shì Xiàmén zhùmíng de xiǎodǎo.

Gulangyu is a famous small island in Xiamen.

这个小屿上只有几户人家。

Zhège xiǎo yǔ shàng zhǐyǒu jǐ hù rénjiā.

There are only a few households on this small islet.

Tips

usage

屿 appears almost exclusively in proper place names like 鼓浪屿 (Gulangyu) and 兰屿 (Orchid Island, Taiwan). On its own it simply means a small island or islet, and is a literary / geographic term.

Components

radical

山 shān

mountain

Left mountain radical — three peaks rising on a baseline. Carries the meaning: a 屿 is a small island, geologically a mountain peak rising above the sea. Indexes 屿 in the terrain family alongside 岛 island, 岸 shore, 岭 ridge, 峰 summit.

phonetic

与 yǔ

and; with (here phonetic)

Right side 与 supplies the sound — yǔ stays yǔ with no shift. The 'and, with' meaning is not transferred; 与 here is a pure phonetic tag. The simplified form replaces the older 與 phonetic block of traditional 嶼, keeping the sound while shaving strokes.