麻风病 (mā fēng bìng) — leprosy

Definition

noun
leprosy

Examples

  • 麻风病。
    Guò qù hěn duō rén dé le mā fēng bìng què wú fǎ zhì liáo.
    In the past, many people contracted leprosy but had no way to treat it.
  • ,麻风病。
    Suí zhe yī xué fā zhǎn, mā fēng bìng yǐ jīng kě yǐ zhì yù le.
    With the development of medicine, leprosy can now be cured.
  • 麻风病。
    Tā yì zhí zài yán jiū rú hé zǎo qī zhěn duàn mā fēng bìng.
    He has been researching how to diagnose leprosy early.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

麻风leprosy
麻mánumbness风fēngwind
联合Coordinate
病bìngillness

The illness is named from 麻 and 风, with 病 marking it as a disease.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

麻 combines 厂 and 𣏟 to represent hemp leaves.

Open 麻 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 风 →

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
疒疒nèsickness
Sound part声符shēngfú
丙
丙bǐng病bìng
Same sound today

病 pairs 疒, a sickness mark, with 丙, which gives the sound; 丙 also means fire, giving a picture of lying feverishly in bed.

Open 病 →

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