腹痛 (fù tòng) — abdominal pain | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

abdominal pain

腹痛。
Tā yīn wèi fù tòng qù le yī yuàn.
He went to the hospital because of abdominal pain.
腹痛。
Zhè zhǒng fù tòng shì chī huài dōng xi yǐn qǐ de.
This kind of abdominal pain is caused by eating spoiled food.
腹痛。
Yī shēng wèn tā fù tòng chí xù le duō jiǔ.
The doctor asked him how long the abdominal pain had lasted.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

腹fùabdomen

The abdomen is in pain, giving abdominal pain.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

肉肉ròumeat; flesh

Sound part声符shēngfú

复

复fù腹⁰fù

Same sound today

The left part 肉, meaning flesh, shows this is a body part, and the right part 复 gives the sound.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

疒甬痛

Meaning part形符xíngfú

疒疒nèillness

Sound part声符shēngfú

甬

甬yǒng痛tòng

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The 疒 part means illness, and 甬 gives the sound; together they form 痛, meaning pain or hurt.

Appears in