嚆

hāo

sound

noise

Mouth (口) + sound-alike (蒿) = a sound or noise

The mouth radical (口) anchors the meaning in vocal or audible output. 蒿 contributes the sound hāo and does not carry semantic weight here.

口+蒿→嚆

口MouthSemantic

蒿A type of wormwood plantPhonetic

箭离弦时发出嚆的一声。

jiàn lí xián shí fā chū hāo de yī shēng。

when the arrow left the bowstring it made a hāo sound.

古书里用嚆来描写响箭的声音。

gǔ shū lǐ yòng hāo lái miáo xiě xiǎng jiàn de shēng yīn。

old texts use hāo to describe the sound of a whistling arrow.