Is the word order of the phrase 瞻仰 wrong?

Question

Reading the news that Chinese leaders joined with the public to pay homage to the war heroes today in Beijing, I notice that the structure of this phrase 瞻仰 that appears in the text is a main word with a modifier, known in Chinese as 偏正词组, with the word to be modified placed after the modifier. As this phrase means "to look at something with reverence", the main word should be "to look", which is 瞻, and 仰 here means "up" or "respect", so the proper word order should be 仰瞻, not the other way round.

Does it make sense?

Answer 1

It's actually 並列構詞. 瞻 and 仰 have similar meanings.

The earliest record of 瞻仰（瞻卬）:

詩 大雅 雲漢：“瞻卬昊天，有嘒其星。” （西周初年至春秋中葉）

At that time, 瞻 and 卬 were treated as separate words. Their meanings are similar.

瞻：向前望或向上望 as in 詩 邶風 燕燕：“～望弗及，泣涕如雨。” It's extended to mean 敬仰，仰望, as in 詩 小雅 小弁：“靡～匪父。” (to look forward or upwards > to venerate)

卬: 舉首向上 as in 莊子天地：“爲圃者卬而視之，曰：‘奈何?’” or 望 as in 國語晉四：“重耳之卬君也，若黍苗之卬陰雨也。” It's extended to mean 敬慕，信任, as in 荀子 議兵：“上足卬則下可用也，上不足卬則下不可用也。” (to raise your head/loop up > to look into the distance, to venerate and trust)

As a 並列詞組, technically at least in early periods either order was possible. But in this case I cannot find a single case. It's probably because 瞻 has an ending m sound in Old Chinese and thus requires a closing mouth. 卬 doesn't. It's easier to end a phrase with an open-mouth sound. Or it is because the 詩 quote is so famous that people use it idiomatically. Or it's possible that the other word was used before 春秋 and written records were lost. Or it's simply that I didn't search through.