彙

A phono-semantic compound composed of:

㣇 — semantic component meaning a hairy animal (long-haired creature);

胃 (simplified/abbreviated form) — phonetic component indicating the sound (휘 / huì).

In ancient forms, it depicted a hairy animal (hedgehog). Over time, the meaning shifted from the animal to the idea of things gathered together, like clustered spines.

Semantic development:

- hedgehog (spiny animal);

- cluster or grouping (from spines gathered together);

- collection or compilation;

- vocabulary or lexical set.

The shift from “hedgehog” to “collection” is based on the idea of many things gathered together (like spines).

어휘 (語彙) — vocabulary

휘집 (彙集) — collection; compilation

In modern usage, 彙 appears mostly in words like 語彙 (vocabulary).

In Chinese, 汇 is more commonly used as a simplified or practical equivalent.

Related characters:

集 — to gather

類 — category

語 — language