Taxonomy of meanings for 永:　　

  • 永 yǒng (OC: ɢʷaŋʔ MC: ɦʷɯiaŋ) 于憬切 上 廣韻：【長也引也逺也遐也亦姓岀何氏姓苑于憬切二 】
    • ENDURING
      • vadNlasting, long-lasting CC 永都 "lasting duty". [for a long time][CA]
      • vadV{NEG}absolutely (with negative)
      • vadVforever; permanently; for a fairly long time; all the time 
      • vadVforeverforever in the future (often involving the syntactic mechanism of adverb-raising, i.e. modifying a verb other than that it precedes) CHECK EXAMPLES AGAIN
      • vibe lasting
      • vtoNcausativecause to be enduring> prolong ??
    • RIVERS
      • =詠
      • =泳

      Additional information about 永

      說文解字: 【永】，長也。象水巠理之長。 〔小徐本「之長」下有「永也」二字。〕 《詩》曰：江之永矣。凡永之屬皆从永。 【於憬切】

        Criteria
      • ENDURING

        1. The general word for something which is constant and lasting in time is jiǔ 久 (ant. qǐng 頃 "for a short time"), which can refer to bounded or unbounded and open-ended persistence in time.

        2. Cháng 長 (ant. duǎn 短 "of short duration") expresses bounded enduringness with a definite final point being typically imagined, although in cháng shēng 長生 the word refers to an unending long life.

        3. Cháng 常 and the especially emphatic héng 恆 "highly constant and permanent" (ant.* ǒu 偶 "contingency and consequent changeability") emphasise the constancy or constant recurrence of the attributes of what is lasting, and typically - though not always - the constancy is valued positively.

        4. Bì 必 refers to something being an invariable event that always tends to occur.

        5. Shí 時 "recurrently, constantly" allows for something being present or having certain attributes intermittently but over a long stretch of time.

        6. Yóng 永 "last for a while" (ant. zàn 暫 "temporary" post-Buddhist, Six Dynasties: temporarily) is an elevated and poetic word often referring to subjectively experienced long duration.