心肌炎 (xīn jī yán) — myocarditis

Definition

noun
myocarditis

Examples

  • 心肌炎。
    Yī shēng zhěn duàn tā dé le xīn jī yán.
    The doctor diagnosed him with myocarditis.
  • 心肌炎。
    xīn jī yán Shì yì zhǒng bǐ jiào yán zhòng de xīn zàng jí bìng.
    Myocarditis is a relatively serious heart disease.
  • 心肌炎。
    Dé le xīn jī yán yí dìng yào jǐn zǎo zhì liáo.
    If you get myocarditis, you must seek treatment as early as possible.

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.

心肌heart muscle
心xīnheart肌jīmuscle
偏正Modifier + head
炎yáninflammation

心 (heart), 肌 (muscle), and 炎 (inflammation) build the medical sense of inflammation of the heart muscle.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 心 comes from a drawing of a heart, now highly stylized.

Open 心 →

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
⺼Written in full as肉ròu
Sound part声符shēngfú
几
几jǐ肌jī
Same sound today

In 肌, the left part ⺼ is the flesh form, matching muscle or flesh, while the right part 几 supplies the sound.

Open 肌 →

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

炎 places two 火 (fire) shapes vertically, one above the other, to show fire doubled.

Open 炎 →

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