The story of 亟

urgent, frequently

亟 depicts a man standing between the sky and the earth, with 口(mouth) and 又(the picture of a hand) on the left and right respectively. The sky and the earth is the end and border of the world, so the original meaning of 亟 is limit or acme, but such meaning has been replaced by 極. No etymologist knows why there are 口 and 又 in 亟, I guess the original picture of 亟 is about the ancient Chinese cognition of the world. Ancient Chinese thought that the beginning of the world was chaos, a giant split it so the sky and the earth were separated, human beings scared the sky would collapse, so every time when there were some astronomical phenomena, they thought the giant was sleepy then woke him up by shouting and beating, so 亟 has the meaning of urgency On the other hand, the giant needs to push the sky endlessly, which is a hard job or punishment(?), so 亟 also means punishment or putting someone to death, but such meaning has been replaced by 殛.