牛皮癣 (niú pí xiǎn) — psoriasis | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

psoriasis

牛皮癣，。
Tā dé le niú pí xiǎn, zhèng zài zhì liáo.
He has psoriasis and is undergoing treatment.
牛皮癣。
niú pí xiǎn Shì yì zhǒng cháng jiàn de pí fū bìng.
Psoriasis is a common skin disease.
牛皮癣。
Yī shēng shuō tā liǎn shàng de niú pí xiǎn yǐ jīng hǎo duō le.
The doctor said the psoriasis on his face has gotten much better.

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.

牛皮cowhide

偏正Modifier + head

癣xuǎnskin disease

牛皮, a cowhide, and 癣, a skin disease, combine for a thick, scaly skin condition.

Characters in this word

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

牛 is drawn as a bull's head, with two horns and two ears.

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

皮 shows a hand pulling fur off an animal pelt, with the pelt drawn at the upper left.

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 癬; 癣 is its simplified writing.

疒鮮癬

Meaning part形符xíngfú

疒Written in full as病bìng

Sound part声符shēngfú

鮮

鮮xiān癬xuǎn

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 癬 pairs 疒, the illness part, with 鮮 for the sound; the simplified 癣 is a later abbreviation.