毓

yù
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to give birth to; to nurture; to foster (classical)

Examples

HSK 4
Rénmen dōu shuō zhège dìfang zhōnglíng-yùxiù, chū guo xǔduō míngrén.
People say this place nurtures talent, and it has produced many famous people.

Tips

history
毓 is an old equivalent of 育 (to raise, to nurture) and is not used as a free word today. It survives in the set phrase 钟灵毓秀 and in personal names. The graph shows a mother 母 and a child being born.
register
Literary and bound - modern use is essentially the idiom 钟灵毓秀 and names; ordinary speech uses 育.

Components

semantic
每 měi
every; mother-form
The left side carries a mother 母 element written within 每, which is why 毓 is indexed under the mother radical. It supplies the idea of a woman giving birth.
semantic
㐬 liú
an upside-down child with flowing fluid
The right side pictures a newborn child emerging head-down with birth fluid - the same graphic seen in 流 and 育. Combined with the mother on the left it spells the act of giving birth and nurturing.

Filed under radical 毋 (wú, #80) by convention. 毋 is not a separate component in 毓, so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order

毓 yù