Taxonomy of meanings for 墮:　　

Additional information about 墮

說文解字:

Criteria
• DESTROY
  

  1. The current general word for destruction of any kind is huǐ 毀, and what is destroyed may anything from a toy or a house to a state.

  2. Miè 滅 refers to the physical destruction of cities or states, and the word implies the use of external military force, and typically military resistance.

  3. Pò 破 is always violent destruction of concrete objects of any kind.

  4. Cán 殘 focusses on the reckless attitude shown by the destroyer.

  5. Yāng 殃 focusses on the disaster constituted by destruction, and this word is used mostly nominally.

  6. Suì 碎 focusses on complete smashing into small pieces of what is destroyed.

  7. Huài 壞 and huī 墮 / 隳 are "to be destroyed, to collapse" but the words are also used transitively "cause to be destroyed, cause to collapse".

  8. Wáng 亡 (ant. fù 復 "reestablish") refers to the political/social ruin of a state and does not focus on any form of physical annihilation or damage.

  9. Bài 敗 and zéi 賊 are currently used for the destruction of abstract things such as dé 德 "virtue".

• FALL
  

  1. The current general word for falling is zhuì 墜, and this word always has concrete meanings typically involving things falling out of the sky or from a high place.

  2. Duò 墮 typically refers to things falling from a much more moderate height.

  3. Yǔn 隕 refers to the falling down of something that has its natural place in a high position, including leaves growing on trees.

  4. Luò 落 is a rare word which usually refers to the falling of leaves from trees.

  5. Xiàn 陷 refers to falling into objects like pits or holes in the ground, also bogs zé 澤, but not rivers and the like.

• TOOTH
  

  1. 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.

  2. Yá 牙 can occasionally generally refer to teeth, even the exquisite teeth of a woman, but the word typically refers to the large side teeth or fangs of an animal with which it bites, and which are seen as a threat. The threatening teeth of an animal, the teeth with which a rat attacks one's home, are yá 牙. Thus one speaks of the zhuǎ yá 爪牙 "the claws and fangs" as metaphors for weapons. Theses are sharp like fangs, and as such they lend themselves to metaphorical use to indicate dented patterns in ornaments.

Word relations