横綱

よこづな · yokoduna · JLPT N1 · noun

champion

横綱 — champion

横 — wood radical 木 + 黄 (huáng, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 木 'wood' gives the meaning (a horizontal wooden bar across a gate), while 黄 supplies the sound. It originally meant the crossbar of a gate, then extended to 'horizontal' generally. The reading hèng later developed the sense of 'unruly' or 'unexpected'.

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