亦

Originally a pictographic character depicting a person standing with arms and legs spread wide (大), with dots at both armpits — representing the word “armpit.”

This early anatomical meaning later disappeared, while the abstract adverbial sense “also” emerged through semantic shift.

To distinguish the older “armpit” meaning, a new derivative character 腋 (겨드랑이 액) was later created by adding the 肉 (flesh radical) to 亦.

Thus, the evolution of 亦 → 腋 mirrors a classic example of semantic specialization in the Chinese script.

또 역 (亦) — also, too, likewise.

역시 (亦是) — also, indeed, as expected.

불역 (不亦) — “is it not also…?” — a common rhetorical pattern in Classical Chinese (cf. “不亦說乎” from The Analects).

Appears frequently in classical texts and proverbs as a connective adverb expressing emphasis, agreement, or addition.

Example:

學而時習之，不亦說乎 — “To learn and constantly practice what one has learned, is it not also a joy?” (Analects 1:1)

腋 (액) — “armpit”; derived from 亦 with the addition of the flesh radical 肉.

夜 (야) — “night”; formed by combining 亦 with 夕 (“evening”), sharing visual ancestry.

䜌 (련) — in some phonetic compounds, 亦 replaces 䜌 as a simplified sound component.