Additional information about 唇
說文解字: 【唇】，驚也。从口、辰聲。 【側鄰切】
- Criteria
- LIP
1. The standard word for the lips is chún 唇／脣.
- Word relations
- Oppos: (LIP)齒/TOOTH
Chǐ 齒 refers to the visible front teeth, thus when one smiles one shows one's chǐ 齒, xiàn chǐ 見齒, and only if one were vampire-like would one show any yá 牙. Chǐ 齒 does not typically refer to the teeth as weapons of aggressive action. The teeth by which one judges age are always chǐ 齒, and the teeth with which one commonly chews tend quite as often to be chǐ 齒. The front teeth that get cold when the lips are gone, are chǐ 齒 in classical Chinese, and they are not seen in that common saying as aggressive weapons. The admirable white teeth of a lady are the chǐ 齒, only in the case of vampires yá 牙. We have goǔ yá 狗牙 but mǎ chí 馬齒. One grinds one's chǐ 齒, 切齒, not one's yá 牙. The first teeth of a child are never yá 牙 and regularly chǐ 齒, and similarly for the teeth that an old man loses, when chǐ duò 齒墮"the teeth fall out". Interestingly, the elephant has chǐ 齒, never yá 牙, presumably because these tusks were taken to be a threat to his own survival, not to man.