Taxonomy of meanings for 雪:　　

  • 雪 xuě (OC: sqhʷed MC: sʷiɛt) 相絕切 入 廣韻：【同雪出説文 】
  • 雪 xuě (OC: sqled MC: sʷiɛt) 相絕切 入 廣韻：【凝雨也元命包曰隂凝爲雪釋名曰雪綏也水下遇寒氣而凝綏綏然下也又拭也除也相絶切四 】
    • SNOW
      • nabprocessThe process of snowing, it snowing, snow as an event/process
      • nmsnow
      • vi0processit is snowing （this is not current in pre-Buddhist Chinese) Du Fu, 大雨：西蜀冬不雪
      • feature>WHITE
          • generalised>CLEAN
              • causative>WIPE
                  • using much water>WASH
                      • generalised>CLEANSE
                        • vtoNcausativeclean
                        • vtoNcausativederived sense: wash away (guilt)

            Additional information about 雪

            說文解字:

              Criteria
            • WASH

              1. Zhuó 濯 is a flexible word for washing anything, from parts of the body to other objects, and the word even has figurative abstract uses where it comes close to meaning "purify", as in purifying one's heart.

              2. Xǐ 洗 refers primarily to the washing of feet but does have a wide generalised use.

              3. Dí 滌 refers primarily to the washing of dishes, but also has considerable extended and generalised uses.

              4. Huǎn 澣 refers to the washing of dirty clothes we are told.

              5. Huàn 浣 refers to the washing off of manifest dirt.

              6. Shù 漱 refers to the washing of clothes that are not especially dirty.

              7. There is a particular proliferation for ritual cleansing in classical Chinese like wò 沃 "cleanse hands ritually, see also gài 摡 / 溉, mí 渳, sōu 溲 ).

              8. Xuě 雪 is only used in transferred figurative senses (xuě 雪 "wash away (guilt etc)").

            • SNOW

              1. The dominant word is xuě 雪.

              2. Xiàn 霰 are snowflakes, and the structure of these drew early Chinese attention.

              3. Bīng 冰 is ice. See ICE.

              Word relations
            • Assoc: (SNOW)霜/ICE Shuāng 霜 refers to frost.