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中药 (zhōng yào) — traditional Chinese medicine

Definition

中药 is the medicine itself — the herbs and preparations used in the traditional system. 中医 refers to the medical system or a practitioner; 草药 is a broader, less clinical term for herbal remedies.

noun
traditional Chinese medicine
Measure word · 服, 种

Examples

  • 中药。
    Yī shēng gěi wǒ kāi le liǎng fú zhōng yào.
    The doctor prescribed me two doses of traditional Chinese medicine.
  • 中药，。
    Wǒ mā ma měi tiān hē zhōng yào, shēn tǐ hěn hǎo.
    My mother drinks traditional Chinese medicine every day, and she is in good health.
  • 中药。
    Zhè zhǒng zhōng yào xū yào zhǔ hěn jiǔ.
    This kind of traditional Chinese medicine needs to be boiled for a long time.

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.

中zhōngChina
药yàomedicine

The China meaning specifies the origin, while medicine gives the type.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The original picture showed a flagpole with a drum in the middle, set up in the center of a field.

Open 中 →

Most 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 藥; 药 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
艹Written in full as艸cǎograss
Sound part声符shēngfú
樂
樂lè藥yào
Same sound today

In the traditional form 藥, 艹 shows grass and 樂 gives the sound; this story is about 藥, not about the simplified 药.

Open 药 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5

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