疯人院 (fēng rén yuàn) — madhouse; lunatic asylum

Definition

noun

madhouselunatic asylum

Measure word · 家

Examples

疯人院。
Nà jiā fēng rén yuàn zǎo jiù guān mén le.
That madhouse closed down long ago.
疯人院。
Xiǎo shuō lǐ de fēng rén yuàn yīn sēn kǒng bù.
The lunatic asylum in the novel was eerie and terrifying.
，疯人院。
Tā wèi le diào chá àn jiàn, jiǎ zhuāng bìng rén zhù jìn le fēng rén yuàn.
He pretended to be a patient and checked into the madhouse to investigate the case.

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.

疯人mad person

疯fēngmad人rénperson

偏正Modifier + head

院yuàninstitution

疯人 means mad person, and 院 means institution; together they name a madhouse.

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 瘋; 疯 is its simplified writing.

疒風瘋

Meaning part形符xíngfú

疒Written in full as病bìng

Sound part声符shēngfú

風

風fēng瘋fēng

Same sound today

The traditional form 瘋 pairs 疒 (illness) with 風 as a sound part; the simplified 疯 is a later shorthand, so its right side is not a historical sound part.

Open 疯 →

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

阝完院

Meaning part形符xíngfú

阝Written in full as阜fù

Sound part声符shēngfú

完

完wán院yuàn

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