秽 (huì) — dirty, filthy; vile, ugly (bound morpheme used in literary compounds)
Definition
Literary bound morpheme meaning 'filthy / obscene', almost always paired as 污秽 or 淫秽. Not used alone in modern Chinese.
bound form
dirtyfilthyvileugly (bound morpheme used in literary compounds)
Examples
- 秽。Zhè zhǒng huì wù bù néng liú zài jiā lǐ.This kind of filth cannot stay in the house.
- 。Zhè ge wǎng zhàn yǒu hěn duō yín huì nèi róng.This website has a lot of obscene content.
- 。Tā shuō de zhè xiē huà fēi cháng wū huì.The words he said are very filthy.
Origin
Sound + meaning六书liùshū
形声xíngshēngMost characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.
This origin belongs to the traditional form 穢; 秽 is its simplified writing.
Sound part声符shēngfú
歲
歲suì穢⁰huì
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.
The traditional form 穢 pairs 禾 (grain) with 歲, which gave the sound; the simplified 秽 is a shorthand, and its right side is not the historical sound part.
Appears in
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