Archaic literary term for a rainbow; in modern Japanese, 虹 (にじ) is the standard word.
In classical literature, there are poems that describe a '虹霓' spanning the sky.
Archaic kanji form for 'rainbow'; the second character 霓 is a rare variant of 蜺.
Alternate archaic spelling using 蜺 instead of 霓.
From Chinese 虹霓 (hóngní), an archaic compound for 'rainbow'. The exact historical derivation in Japanese is uncertain; it is preserved mainly in classical texts.