脾脏
pí​zàng

spleen

脾 pí spleen

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

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

卑
卑 Sound component
bēi humble, inferior
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartbjiem-[p]e spleen

說文解字

《說文》：“脾，土藏也。从肉，卑聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

脏 zàng, zāng internal organs, dirty Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 庄 represents the sound. Simplified form of 髒 (dirty) and 臟 (internal organ).

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

庄
庄 Sound component
zhuāng village, farmstead

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

臟 zàng, zāng internal organs Traditional

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

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

藏
藏 Sound component
cáng hide

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangzaːŋs

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang