Taxonomy of meanings for 漂:　　

  • 漂 piào (OC: phews MC: pʰiɛu) 匹妙切 去 廣韻：【水中打絮韓信寄食於漂母又撫招切 】
  • 漂 piāo (OC: phew MC: pʰiɛu) 撫招切 平 廣韻：【浮也亦作𣿖 】
    • FLOAT
      • vadNdrifting along
      • vifloat; drift ??
      • vt+prep+NN=placefloat into, drift to
      • vtoNcausativecause N to float awayDS
    • TRAVEL
      • FLUSH
        • PLANTS
          • LIGHTWEIGHT
            • HIGH
              • = 飄
            • biāoULCER
              • n=瘭 ulcerous swellingCH

            Additional information about 漂

            說文解字:

              Criteria
            • FLOAT

              1. The general word for floating of any kind, also of clouds in the air, is fú 浮 (ant. chén 沉 ).

              2. Piāo 漂 refers to floating in the air.

              3. Fàn 泛, fàn 氾, and fàn 汎 seem to be dialect variants of a word for drifting on water, typically aimlessly. (It is to be noted that the three words, though close in pronunciation, are by no means homophonous in ancient pronunciation. One should think they must be etymologically related.)

            • SINK

              1. The most current general word for the process sinking is probably chén 沈 (ant. fú 浮 "float").

              2. Mò 沒 "get submerged" (ant. piāo 漂 "float") expresses the result of chén 沈 "sinking".

              3. Lún 淪 "sink into" (ant. fàn 汎 "float") has abstract usages where the word means "go under" and gets close in meaning to wáng 亡 "be ruined".

              4. Miǎn 湎 "get immersed in" is mostly used in transferred senses such as "get immersed in wine" and thus gets close in meaning to dān 耽 "get addicted to".