突

• Physical Protrusion: To bulge or stick out; describes convex shapes or physical bumps.
• Active Breakthrough: To charge, pierce, or penetrate a barrier; frequently used in military contexts to describe penetrating enemy lines.
• Temporal Abruptness: Suddenly, abruptly, or unexpectedly; often carries a connotation of "intrusion" or force.

• Modifier: Describes a physical feature (e.g., "protruding").
• Verb: Transitive; takes an object (the barrier being broken through).
• Adverb: Modifies the following clause to signal abruptness.

• vs. 猝 (cù): While both denote suddenness, 猝 typically implies a shock or an abruptness leading to cessation (e.g., sudden death), whereas 突 emphasizes momentum and arrival.
• vs. 衝 (chōng): Both involve rushing, but 衝 focuses on the impact or collision, while 突 focuses on the breakthrough or penetration.

The glyph combines 穴 (cave/hole) and 豕 (pig), suggesting the forceful emergence of an animal bursting from a confined space.

• In early contexts, this glyph may be interchangeable with 凸, though 突 often retains a sense of active thrusting outward.
• In very early or highly specialized texts, there is a marginal possibility that the glyph refers specifically to livestock or subterranean spaces given its components (hole/pig), though this is rare compared to the established senses of protrusion and suddenness.