肾
shèn HSK7

kidneys

Components

又
又 Unknown component
yòu again
⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

flesh

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

腎 kidneys Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 臤 represents the sound.

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

臤
臤 Sound component
to gouge out an eye

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzyinXCə.[ɡ]i[n]ʔkidney
Zhengzhangɡjinʔ

說文解字

水藏也。从肉臤聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)