Origin

The character combines a bird (隹) above with fire (灬) below. When a bird is exposed to fire, it gets charred and burned, which directly shows the idea of scorching or charring. The image of something being burnt by flames also led to the related meaning of feeling heated emotions like impatience or irritation. Over time, all these burning-related senses—literal charring, scorching, and figurative emotional heat—attached themselves to this single character.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).