Taxonomy of meanings for 吐:
- 吐 tǔ (OC: kh-laaʔ MC: tʰuo) 他魯切 上 廣韻：【口吐亦虜複姓三氏後魏書有吐奚吐難吐萬氏又虜三字姓三氏慕容廆庶長兄吐谷渾後將所部居西零以西甘松之南極乎白蘭數千里其孫葉廷曰禮云孫子得以王父字爲氏遂以吐谷渾爲氏又後魏書吐伏盧氏 】
- 吐 tù (OC: kh-laas MC: tʰuo) 湯故切 去 廣韻：【歐也又湯古切 】
Additional information about 吐
說文解字: 【吐】，寫也。 〔小徐本「寫」作「瀉」。〕 从口、土聲。 【他魯切】
- Criteria
- SWALLOW
1. The most general word is yàn 嚥 / 咽 which refers to any act of swallowing, fast or slow, eager or relaxed.
2. Tūn 吞 (ant. tǔ 吐 "gulp up") is to gulp down eagerly, typically in large chunks.
3. Xiá 呷 is a very rare word apparently referring to sucking and swallowing.
- SPIT
1. The current word spitting is tuò 唾.
2. Xiè 瀉 is to bring up deep down from the stomach rather than the throat.
3. O ㄆ歐／嘔 is to be ill and spit out involuntarily.
4. Yí 洟 is used to refer to mucus from the nose, but there are cases where the word seems to refer to saliva.
NB: Tǔ 吐 "to spit" is post-Buddhist.
- BREATHE
1. The current standard words for breathing are xí 息 "breathe" and hū xī 呼吸 "breathe out and in", and the latter word refers also more generally to taking in things liquids through the mouth, ant. tǔ 吐 "spit out".
2. Chuī 吹 refers to the blowing out of breath either as part of heavy breathing or e.g. in the playing of music. See BLOW.
3. Chuǎn 喘 refers to heavy panting, including breathing in and out, especially on the occasion of exhaustion or ill health. See PANT.
4. Xī 吸 refers specifically to breathing in.
5. Pèn 噴 refers to the breathing out of air including the concurrent spitting out of liquids or indeed food in the mouth, proverbially rice.
6. Xū 噓 refers to breathing lightly, in and out, without making any noise, but the focus is often on the breathing out rather than in.
7. Kuì 喟 refers to the breathing out heavily and noisily, in the manner of an intense and demonstrative sigh. See SIGH.
8. Xǔ 煦 is to breathe (typically warm) air on something, but the word is much more common in the meaning "to shout".
9. Hū 呼 occasionally refers to the breathing out of air, also including certain light liquids, but the word standardly focusses on the considerable noise being produced on this occasion. See SHOUT.
NB: that most words for breathing refer primarily to breathing through the mouth and not through the nose.
- LANGUAGE
1. The most abstract philosophical and general term for language is yán 言.
2. Yǔ 語 refers to speech as part of a dialogue, but very often also generally to a language of one kind or another.
3. Yīn 音 refers to language as primarily manifested in special forms of oral articulation, but the word also often refers to a specific language in general.
4. Wén 文 refers to language as primarily manifested in specific ways of writing it down, but the word also often refers to a specific language in general. Gāosēngzhuàn p. 329 that someone 手執梵文口宣晉語。 "In his hand he held the Sanskrit text and with his mouth pronounced Jìn language."
5. Huà 話 refers to language as concrete utterance, typically as part of dialogue, and the word which is so common in modern Chinese is quite rare in classical Chinese.
6. Fāng yán 方言 (Míng dynasty occasional variant: 方語 ) refers to a local language or dialect, as spoken in a given place.
7. Yányǔ 言語 and the somewhat rarer yǔyán 語言 refer to language and linguistic articulatory activity in a general abstract way.
8. Yǔyīn 語音 and yányīn 言音 refer to oral articulatory aspects of language in a general and abstract way.
9. Yīn yì 音義 is a rare expression referring abstractly to a local variety of linguistic conventions linking sound and meaning.
10. Wén zì 文字 refers to the written language.
T49n2038_p0910c26(05)║ 所以善吐番音。兼解諸國文字。
- VOMIT
1. The most current general term for emitting anything from the mouth is tù 吐. See also SPIT
2. O ㄆ嘔 refers specifically to throwing up.
NB: Qìn 唚 "(of cats and dogs) to vomit" is post-Han.