Chinese Character Wiki
鬱

yù

melancholy, sweet smelling

Depicts a person (大) trampling another person (勹), who is depressed, in a forest (林). 鬯 (sacrificial wine) was later added to the character since the meaning later extended to "sweet smelling".

Components
林 iconic component

林  Iconic component

lín

  

forest

大 iconic component

大  Iconic component

dà, dài

  

big

Depicts a person trampling. Modern form looks like unrelated 缶.

勹 iconic component

勹  Iconic component

bāo

  

wrap

Here used to depict a depressed person being trampled. Modern form looks like unrelated 冖.

鬯 meaning component

鬯  Meaning component

chàng

  

sacrificial wine

This component was later added since the meaning of this character extended to "sweet smelling".

彡 unknown,distinguishing component

彡  Unknown Distinguishing component

shān

  

hair

This component was possibly added as decorative strokes.

Evolution

鬱 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
鬱 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
鬱 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
鬱 Clerical script Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Clerical script

Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)
鬱 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

郁 (鬱) 

yù

luxuriant; dense, thick; moody; dense (growth); melancholy

郁 (鬱) 

Yù

surname Yu

Most common words with 鬱
Freq.
Word
Meaning

郁闷

gloomy

抑郁

depressed

忧郁

sullen

抑郁症

clinical depression

浓郁

rich

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*qut

'jut

yù

blocked; anxious


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 13.2949% of movies

1809th most common character in movies

1915th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

29

Simplified

郁

Unicode

U+9B31

Shuowen

“鬱，木叢生者。从林，省聲。”


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