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阳痿 (yáng wěi) — (medicine) impotence

Definition

A medical term for male impotence — erectile dysfunction, the inability to get or keep an erection. Use in clinical or health contexts, not casual talk.

verb
(medicine) impotence

Examples

  • 阳痿。
    Tā yīn wèi yáng wěi qù kàn yī shēng.
    He went to see a doctor because of impotence.
  • 阳痿。
    yáng wěi Shì yì zhǒng cháng jiàn de nán xìng jí bìng.
    Impotence is a common male disease.
  • 阳痿。
    Zhè ge yào kě yǐ zhì liáo yáng wěi.
    This medicine can treat impotence.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

阳yángmale organ
痿wěiwithered

阳痿 describes the male organ (阳) becoming weak or withered (痿).

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 陽; 阳 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
阜阜fùhill
Sound part声符shēngfú
昜
昜yáng陽yáng
Same sound today

In the traditional form 陽, 阜 shows a hill and 昜 is the older character for the word, tied to sunshine and the sound; simplified 阳 is a later shorthand.

Open 阳 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 痿 →
Appears in
Illness & Symptoms

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