雅 yǎ elegant
elegant; graceful; refined
怎么记住“雅”: 牙 tooth + 隹 short-tailed bird = elegant. The dentist fixes her front tooth just before the wedding, and in the photo with the white short-tailed birds she looks elegant.
部件结构
形声 · Meaning + sound
One part gives the meaning, the other gives the sound.
雅 = 牙 tooth + 隹 short-tailed bird
- 牙 tooth sound
- 隹 short-tailed bird meaning
The dentist fixes her front tooth just before the wedding, and in the photo with the white short-tailed birds she looks elegant.
How it came to be
The bird gives the meaning and the tooth the sound: the character first named a kind of crow.
用法
- Refined/elegant/tasteful: 优雅 (yōuyǎ) graceful, 文雅 (wényǎ) cultured and polite (of manner/speech), 雅致 (yǎzhì) tasteful.
- The opposite pole from 俗 (vulgar/common): 高雅 (gāoyǎ) highbrow vs 低俗 lowbrow.
- Also a politeness marker in set phrases: 雅正 (yǎzhèng) 'kindly correct my work,' a humble request to a reader.