Taxonomy of meanings for 衍:　　

    Additional information about 衍

    說文解字: 【衍】，水朝宗于海也。 〔小徐本「也」上有「皃」。〕 从水、从行。 〔小徐本「行」上無「从」。〕 【以淺切】

      Criteria
    • FLOW

      1. The dominant standard word for the natural flow of water or any liquid is líú 流 (ant. zhì 滯 "be blocked").

      2. Pèi 沛 is to flow abundantly and rapidly.

      3. Màn 漫 is to overflow in all directions.

      4. Yǎn 衍 and yǎn 演 are both occasionally (and originally!) used to refer to water flowing over long distances.

      NB: There are many poetic words in this group which have rather low frequency. Poetically elaborated groups of this kind need a separate study which takes special note of rules of euphony in poetry in addition to semantic considerations.