How to Write 猗 (yī) — Meaning “Beautiful / Flourishing”

Imagine a strange (奇) dog (犭) that is so beautiful and lush that it makes everyone exclaim "yī!" This connects the sound and the meaning to the unusual image of an elegant animal.

The left radical 犭 must be written with three strokes: a left-falling stroke, a hook, then another left-falling stroke. The right side 奇 has a wide top (大) and a balanced bottom (可), so keep the left side narrow and the right side slightly wider. A common mistake is making the 犭 too large or forgetting the hook.

猗 has 奇 (strange) on the right, while 狠 has 艮 (root) and 狊 has a right side combining 目 (eye) and 犬 (dog). In meaning, 猗 means beautiful or flourishing, 狠 means cruel, and 狊 is a rare character meaning "to bark" or "startled."

猗 is very rare in modern daily Chinese and is not part of the HSK vocabulary. It appears mainly in classical poetry and literary descriptions, such as the phrase 猗猗 (yī yī) meaning "lush and luxuriant" and the exclamation 猗欤 (yī yú) meaning "how magnificent!"

Common words containing 猗 include: 猗猗 (yī yī) — Lush / Luxuriant; 猗郁 (yī yù) — Lush and dense; 猗欤 (yī yú) — How magnificent (exclamation).