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卫生 (wèi shēng) — (noun) hygiene; sanitation; (adjective) hygienic; sanitary

Definition

卫生 (wèishēng) covers 'hygiene' and 'sanitation' — both the noun idea (practices, conditions) and the adjective 'clean / sanitary.' For 'health' as a state of being well, use 健康.

noun
hygienesanitation
adjective
hygienicsanitary
Easily confused

Examples

  • 卫生。
    Zhù yì gè rén wèi shēng hěn zhòng yào.
    Paying attention to personal hygiene is very important.
  • 卫生。
    Zhè jiā cān tīng de wèi shēng tiáo jiàn hěn hǎo.
    The sanitary conditions at this restaurant are very good.
  • 卫生。
    Chú fáng yào bǎo chí wèi shēng gān jìng.
    The kitchen must be kept clean and hygienic.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

卫wèiprotect
生shēnglife

卫 “protect” and 生 “life” combine to mean guarding life, hence hygiene.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 衛; 卫 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
行行xíng
Sound part声符shēngfú
韋
韋wéi衛wèi
Same sound today

The traditional form 衛 is built from 行 as the sense part and 韋 as the sound part; the simplified 卫 is a shorthand.

Open 卫 →

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

生 shows 屮 (a bud) above 一 (the ground), drawing a sprout coming up from the earth.

Open 生 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4Hygiene & Grooming5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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