渔 (yú): to fish

Meanings

1 to fish
2 to engage in fishing
3 to seek (gain) by unfair means

Characters

渔

yú

to fish; fishing

Examples

他从小就跟父亲一起渔。

Tā cóngxiǎo jiù gēn fùqīn yīqǐ yú.

He has been fishing with his father since childhood.

不劳而获，趁火打劫，渔人之利。

Bùláo'érhuò, chènhuǒdǎjié, yú rén zhī lì.

Reaping without sowing, looting during a fire — profiting at others' expense.

Tips

usage

渔 on its own is a somewhat formal or literary verb for fishing. In everyday speech, 钓鱼 (diàoyú, to fish with a rod) or 捕鱼 (bǔyú, to catch fish) are more common. 渔 also appears in compounds like 渔民 (fisherman), 渔船 (fishing boat), 渔业 (fishing industry).

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form of 水)

Three-drops water radical on the left — side-form of 水. Fishing happens in water, so this is the natural anchor. 渔 is built on top of 鱼 (fish) by adding water, turning the noun 'fish' into the verb 'to fish.' Same family: 河, 海, 湖, 江.

phonetic

鱼 yú

fish

Right 鱼 — pictograph of a fish (head on top, body and tail compressed). Supplies the sound yú with no shift, and carries the semantic load: the thing you catch. A perfect phono-semantic compound where phonetic doubles as meaning: water + fish = to catch fish.