Taxonomy of meanings for 離:　　

Additional information about 離

說文解字: 【離】，黃倉庚也，鳴則蠶生。从隹、离聲。 【呂支切】

Criteria
• WRITE
  

  1. The standard current word for writing something down or noting it down is shū 書, and this word can never refer to an act of literary creation.

  2. Zhù 著 and zhuàn 撰 are late words referring to the act of writing of a text.

  3. Xiě 寫 refers to copying and transcribing rather than writing as such.

  4. Lù 錄, zhì 志, and jì 記 refer to the act of recording, formally or informally.

  5. Biān 編, lí 離, and zhǔ 屬 refer to the compilation of texts.

• AVOID
  

  [[BASIC/DERIVED]]

  [ABSTRACT/CONCRETE]

  [DELIBERATE/INVOLUNTARY]

  [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

  [GRAMMATICALISED/LEXICAL]

  [HIGH-DEGREE/LOW-DEGREE]

  1. The general word is miǎn 免 (ant. zāo 遭 "encounter"), and this refers to any voluntary or involuntary process leading to one's escape from what otherwise might occur, especially one's being spared a negative experience.

  [CONCRETE], [GENERAL]

  2. Bì 避 (ant. mào 冒 "expose oneself to"), unlike miǎn 免, is always deliberate and describes a strategy of action which successfully avoids an undesirable impending danger.

  [DELIBERATE]

  3. Yuàn 遠 (ant. jìn 近 "move close to") is a specific strategy of avoidance which is well within one's control and consists in keeping what is undesirable at a long distance from one.

  [DELIBERATE], [HIGH-DEGREE]

  4. Lí 離 differs from yuàn 遠 in the fact that no great distance, concrete or abstract, is implied in the word.

  [DELIBERATE]; [[DERIVED]]

  5. Chú 除 refers to the avoidance or removal of something that is perceived as posing a powerful threat. See REMOVE

  [CAUSATIVE], [DELIBERATE]; [[DERIVED]]

  6. Qù 去 (ant. lí 罹 "get exposed to") is avoidance through getting rid of what is threatening.

  [CAUSATIVE], [DELIBERATE]; [[DERIVED]]

  7. Jué 絕 refers to avoidance through getting rid completely and definitively of what is threatening.

  [ABSTRACT], [CAUSATIVE], [DELIBERATE], [HIGH-DEGREE]

  8. Tuì 退 refers to avoidance by withdrawing from what exposes one to what is threatening.

  [DELIBERATE], [SPECIFIC]

  9. Wù 勿 is a negation referring to an instruction to avoid doing something, and the word often has an object pronoun understood. See NOT.

  [GRAMMATICALISED]

• DISTANT
  

  1. The clearly dominant term for distance in general is yuǎn 遠 (ant. jìn 近 "close").

  2. Shū 疏 (ant. qīn 親 "close") often refers to distance of relation in a more than purely physical sense.

  3. Yōu 悠 and jiǒng 迥 is a poetic word describing as distant something which one wishes was near.

  4. Liáo 遼 is a poetic referring to what is distant and remote in space and therefore an obscure place. Note liáo yuǎn 遼遠.

  5. Miǎo 邈 is a rare poetic word, and from the few usages we have it seems more frequently to refer to distance in time.

  6. Yáo 遙 is an elusive poetic word referring to a mystical distance, typically the distance into which one roams freely xiāo yáo 逍遙.

  7. Qù 去 can refer to concrete or abstract distance, and in the abstract case the distance is close in meaning to difference.

  8. Lí 離 in this sense is a purely geometrical terms that can sometimes refer to the distance of some object from another.

  9. Jué 絕 "cut-off, distant" is a fairly elevated way of referring to the remoteness of a region.

  10. Xiá 遐 (ant. ěr 邇 "close"), a distinctly rare and archaic word, describes something as not only distant, but also ethereal, remote and difficult of access.

• APPROACH
  

  [DRAMATIC]/[UNDRAMATIC]

  [ELEVATED/VULGAR]

  [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

  [HIGH-DEGREE/LOW-DEGREE]

  [LITERAL/TRANSFERRED]

  1. The most current general word for approaching or getting close to anything is jìn 近 (ant. yuàn 遠 "remove oneself far from").

  [GENERAL], [LITERAL!]

  2. Jí 即 and jiù 就 (all ant. lí 離 "leave, move away from") refer neutrally to moving close to a certain place.

  [GENERAL]

  3. Bó 薄 and pò 迫 refers somewhat dramatically to moving (often precariously) close to something.

  [DRAMATIC], [LITERAL]

  4. Fù 附 is to move very close up indeed to something, often getting attached to it.

  [HIGH-DEGREE], [LITERAL]

  5. Qīn 親 (NB: shū 疏 is not used as an antonym for this meaning.) refers primarily to moving intimately close to something.

  [ELEVATED], [TRANSFERRED!]

  6. Lín 臨 is often used in ways characteristic of the dignified court style, but the word also commonly refers to getting close to a place or time in a natural course of events.

  [ELEVATED!], [GENERAL]

• RETURN
  

  1. The standard general word for returning to where one belongs is guī1 歸 (zhī 之 "go to").

  2. Fǎn 反 / 返 (ant. wǎng 往 "set out for") is to get back to where one came from, and the focus is on whereto one returns. 及反 is "when he had got back", 未反 is "before he had god back". 反哭 is wailing upon one's return, not while returning.

  3. Huán 還 (ant. wǎng 往 "set out for") typically refers to turning round and preparing to retrace one's steps or one's route, very often after a military or civil engagement, successful or unseccessful, and the focus is on wherefrom one returns. 還 as a subordinate sentence is "when he was on his way back". See TURN ROUND

  4. Fù 復 (ant. lí 離 "quit") is sometimes used for returning to or regaining a position.

• SUFFER
  

  1. The most general word referring to a person's being exposed to something is probably shòu 受 (ant. shī 施 "have an effect on, act upon"), which can take both desirable and non-desirable objects.

  2. Jiàn 見 tends to take verbal complements and tends to refer to a person being exposed to undesirable effects.

  3. Qǔ 取 refers to deliberate exposure to an action or exposure to something by one's own fault.

  4. Beì 被 tends to refer to exposure to undesirable effects from the outside.

  5. Zāo 遭 and yù 遇 refer to unexpected and unprovoked exposure to outside effects.

  6. Měng 蒙 often refers to deliberate exposure to negative outside dangers or effects, but the word also has a generalised use where it simply corresponds to shòu 受.

  7. Lí 罹 and its loan character lí 離 refer to innocently running into some trouble or encountering some sorrow.

  8. Xiàn 陷 "get trapped in" refers occasionally to a disastrous encounter with what turns out inescapable. See TRAP

• LEAVE
  

  1. The general word for leaving one place for another is qù 去 (ant. liú 留 "remain").

  2. Chū 出 (ant. rù 入 "remain inside") refers to the leaving of an enclosed space.

  3. Wǎng 往 (ant.* jū 居 "stay at home") focusses not only on the leaving but especially on the direction a person takes after leaving.

  4. Lí 離 focusses on the distance established by leaving between a person and the place which he leaves.

• REMAIN
  

  1. The current word for staying or remaining in one place is jū 居 (ant. xíng 行 "walk away").

  2.Chǔ 處 (ant. yóu 游 "travel"), much rarer than jū 居, refers to being situated in one place rather than moving about, and the word, in this meaning, can refer to persons as well as things.

  3. Zhǐ 止 is inchoative and refers to the coming to stop so as to remain in a certain place after movement.

  4. Liú 留 (ant. lí 離 "get away from a place") refers to immobility in one place after one has already spent some time there.

  5. Zhù 駐 can come to refer to staying in a place other than one's home.

  6. Zhì 滯 refers to getting stuck in one place, being unable to leave.

• GO TO
  

  1. Zhī 之 is to go to a place, typically taking the most direct route, by any conveyance as a result of a decision and typically with the purpose of staying there for a while or conducting some business.

  2. Cào/zào 造 and rú 如 refer to aiming for a destination, and the movement may be by foot or by any conveyance.

  3. Wǎng 往 (ant. jū 居 "remain at home") refers to setting out for a destination by any means of transport or by foot, and the destination is not very often made explicit by an ordinary noun as object. Moreover wǎng 往 does not necessarily imply going somewhere by the most direct route.

  4. Fù 赴 refers to hastening to a (typically dangerous) destination (such as an abyss or fire), or to a place where one is to perform a public duty.

  5. Qū 趨 refers to hurrying politely to a destination.

  6. Shì 適 refers to moving in a certain direction, or heading for a certain place, and the word is also used for arrival at the destination.

  7. Jiù 就 (ant. qù 去 "leave") and the somewhat rarer jí 即 (ant. lí 離 "leave") refer to approaching a certain destination by any means of transport.

  8. Yì 詣 refers to going somewhere to pay a formal visit. See VISIT.

• COMBINE
  

  1. The current general word for combining or linking things, or joining a new unit into an old one is jiān 兼 (ant. fēn 分 "be divided").

  2. Hé 合 (ant. lí 離 "get separated off") is the combining of typically abstract items into a single whole.

  3. Lián 聯 and the Han equivalent lián 連 (all ant. jué 絕 "break relations with") refer to the establishing of links without the creation of a new unity.

  4. Huì 會 refers to the combination of separate units into a whole as in huì yì 會意 "complex characters where semantically significant elements retain their graphic significance".

  5 Bìng 並 refers to the lining things up and joining them together. See ANNEX.

  6. Zhuān 專 is occasionally used to refer to the combining or uniting of things. See CONCENTRATE

• DIVIDE
  

  1. The most current general word for physically diving things into separate parts is fēn 分 (ant. yī 一 "treat as one undivided whole, to unite") and this word may refer to destroying the unity of what is being divided.

  2. Bié 別 (ant. tóng 同 "treat as the same, treat the same way") is to separate physically what can be separated out without interfering with integrity of the things separated. ( 別男女 "separate men from women")

  3. Xī 析 is to split and divide what is naturally unsplit and undivided.

  4. Lí 離 (ant. hé 合 "combine into one") is to keep apart what naturally is apart.

• SCATTER
  

  1. The current standard word for scattering anything in any way is sǎn 散.

  2. Bù 布 is prototypically to spread something with a positive purpose.

  3. Shī 施 refers to dispensing something in many places and thus spreading it around, and the object of spreading is usually a benefit.

  4. Pǔ 普 refers abstractly to something being spread over a considerable area.

  5. Kuì 潰 refers to being scattered and thus ruined.

  6. Lí 離 refers to the scattering or separation of what would naturally belong together.

  7. Bò 播 refers to scattering as dissemination for good use.

• RALLY
  

  1.The general word for rallying around someone or turning to some place is guī 歸 (ant. lí 離 "distance oneself from") and refers to any group of persons feeling loyal towards and showing allegiance to someone through their action.

  2. Xiàng 向 (ant. bèi 背 "turn one's back on") is allegiance in attitude which may or may not manifest itself in concrete action.

  3. Bì 比 and liú 留 are relatively rare words which refer to closing ranks behind someone and showing political support for him.

• OFFEND
  

  1. The current most general word for offending against what one is obliged to act in accordance with or going against a current is probably nì 逆 (ant. shùn 順 "follow and obey"), which refers to any action which goes against something.

  2. Fàn 犯 (ant. cǒng 從 "follow obediently") refers as a derogatory term to a deliberate and active breaking of a rule.

  3. Gān 干 and gān 奸 are rare words referring specifically to culpable breach of the law.

  4. Wéi 違 (ant. xún 循 "follow") and the rarer lí 離 as well as fēi 非 are neutral terms referring to a failure to comply with something.

  5. Fú 拂 refers to something grating against sensibilities or creating a conflict.

  6. Fáng 妨 adds to the failure of compliance the nuance of interference with what one fails to comply with.

  7. Kuī 虧 adds to the failure of compliance the nuance of inflicting harm or damage on what one fails to comply with.

  8. Shāng 傷, hài 害, and bài 敗 add to the failure of compliance the element of ruining what one has failed to comply with exactly by this failure of compliance; but hài 害 has developed a special related meaning of offending logically against something, i.e. being incompatible with it.

Word relations
• Ant: (DIVIDE)合/COMBINE Hé 合 (ant. lí 離 "get separated off") is the combining of typically abstract items into a single whole.
• Ant: (CONFLICT)合/CONFORM Zhōu 周 and hé 合 (all ant. fǎn 反 "go against the model") refer to complete all-round conformity construed as overall identification with a model. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (AVOID)避 / 辟/AVOID Bì 避 (ant. mào 冒"expose oneself to"), unlike miǎn 免, is always deliberate and describes a strategy of action which successfully avoids an undesirable impending danger. [DELIBERATE]
• Assoc: (SCATTER)散/SCATTER The current standard word for scattering anything in any way is sàn 散. 4 Attributions
• Oppos: (AVOID)俗/VULGAR The most general current word for ordinariness or vulgarity is sú 俗 (ant. yǎ 雅 "elegant"), and the basic parameter of judging something as sú 俗is relative status in the hierarchy. 1 Attribution