Additional information about 凋
說文解字: 【凋】，半傷也。从仌、周聲。 【都僚切】
- Criteria
- FLOURISH
1. The current general word for flourishing or thriving of any kind, abstract or concrete is shèng 盛 (ant. shuāi 衰 "decline").
2. Chāng 昌 and xīng 興 (all ant. wáng 亡 "be ruined"), and lóng 隆 (ant. tì 替 "decline") refer primarily to the flourishing of political institutions and the like.
3. Xí 息, zhí 殖, and fān 蕃 refer specifically to the flourishing of flora and fauna.
4. The literal word for luxuriant growth of plants is mào 茂 (ant. diāo 凋 "dried up").
5. Róng 榮 (ant. kū 枯 "dried up") refers especially to splendid luxuriance of growth as an admirable sight.
6. Fēng 豐 (ant.* wěi 萎 "dried up and thin on the ground") refers to rich thick growth, often as an asset.
7. Fān 蕃 and yù 鬱 (mostly reduplicated yù yù 鬱鬱 ) refer to ample thick growth.
8. Fú shū 扶疏 is a poetic word referring to luxurious growth of plants.
NB: There is a remarkable abundance of terminology in this semantic field, and in many cases the distinctions are less than clear.
- WITHER
1. The current general word for anything drying up or withering down, also anything like fish which because of lack of water starts rotting, is kū 枯 (ant. rùn 潤 "moist and lush" and róng 榮 "flourish and thrive").
2. Gǎo 槁 refers specifically to the withering of plants, or to their withered state. The combination kū gǎo 枯槁 is idiomatic.
3. Wěi 萎 (ant. shèng 盛 "rich and flourishing") refers to plants (and in a transferred usually permanent sense male sexual organs!) shrivilling up and drying out.
4. Diāo 凋 (ant. mào 茂 "be flourishing") refers to whole plants withering and losing their leaves as a result, but the word may also refer to the loss of leaved because of frost.
5. Luò 落 refers abstractly and colourlessly to trees losing their leaves.
6. Líng 零 refers in a more dramatic way to plants other than trees losing their leaves.