wèi

stomach

The top component is a pictograph of the stomach. The bottom component ⺼ (flesh) is a common component in body parts.

Components
◎ iconic component

  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts the stomach. Modern form looks like unrelated .

⺼ meaning component

  Meaning component

ròu

  

meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of .

Evolution

胃 Bronze script Late Spring and Autumn (~500 BC)

Bronze script

Late Spring and Autumn (~500 BC)
胃 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
胃 Clerical script Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
胃 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

wèi

stomach; gizzard of fowl; CL:|[gè]

Most common words with 胃
Freq.
Word
Meaning

stomach

胃口

appetite

开胃

appetizing

肠胃

digestive system

胃癌

stomach cancer

Component uses

Sound component in 7 characters (3 verified)

Remnant component in 1 character (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[ɢ]ʷə[t]-s

hjw+jH

wèi

stomach


Statistics

HSK level 5

Appears in 15.9859% of movies

1721st most common character in movies

1957th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

9

Unicode

U+80C3

Shuowen

“胃,穀府也。从肉、。象形。”


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