厌食 (yàn shí) — (medical) anorexia; lack of appetite

Definition

Medical noun for 'loss of appetite' or the clinical condition anorexia. Most often seen with 症 ('symptom') in 厌食症.

noun

(medical) anorexialack of appetite

。
Tā yīn wèi yàn shí zhèng zhù jìn le yī yuàn.
She was hospitalized due to anorexia.
厌食。
Cháng qī yàn shí huì dǎo zhì yíng yǎng bù liáng.
Long-term anorexia can lead to malnutrition.
厌食。
Yī shēng shuō tā zhè zhǒng yàn shí xū yào xīn lǐ zhì liáo.
The doctor said his kind of anorexia requires psychological therapy.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

食shífood/eating

厌 expresses dislike or aversion, and 食 refers to eating or food, giving lack of appetite.

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 厭; 厌 is its simplified writing.

厂猒厭

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

猒

猒yàn厭yàn

Same sound today

The traditional form 厭 combines 厂 as the meaning part with 猒 as the sound part; the simplified 厌 is a later abbreviation.

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

The form behind 食 shows 亼, a mouth, together with 皀, a bowl of rice on a stand. In modern 食, the bowl part has changed shape.