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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

肉

ròu
meat; flesh
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 肉
  • 6 strokes
  • 脈
  • 脉

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Etymology 1

Pictogram (象形) – ribs of an animal’s torso or simply a physical representation of a slice of meat. Stylized into 月 when next to a phonetic component and 𱼀 and/or 夕 inside some characters.

Probably from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *now (“tender; soft”), which has also been compared to 柔 (OC *mlju, “soft; flexible”), 揉 (OC *mju, “to knead”), 軟 (OC *njonʔ, “soft”), 弱 (OC *njewɢ, “weak”), 懦 (OC *noːls, *njo, “cowardly”), 荏 (OC *njɯmʔ, “weak”) (STEDT; Schuessler, 2007). Alternatively, it may be from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-nja-k (“meat, flesh”) (STEDT).

; "media"

Etymology 3

Unclear. Reminiscent of 脢 (OC *mɯːs, *mɯː, *mɯːs, “dorsal meat”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Alternatively, it may be of substrate origin. Compare (Deng, 1994):

* Proto-Austronesian *SimaR (“grease; oil; fat”) > Amis simal;

* Proto-Tai *manᴬ (“grease; fat”) > Thai มัน (man);

* Malay gemuk (“fat”, adjective);

* Bunun masmuh (“fat”, adjective);

* Tsat maʔ˥˧ (“fat”, adjective).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese冂 “city outskirts; suburbs”
  • partChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*now “tender; soft”
    • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*s-nja-k “meat, flesh”

Related: Proto-Austronesian *SimaR, Amis simal, Proto-Tai *manᴬ, Thai มัน, Malay gemuk, Bunun masmuh

Words built on it: 有, 臉, 腳, 腿, 胖, 背, 脫, 將, 散, 肥, 骨

Meanings

character
  1. meat; flesh
  2. pork
  3. body
  4. flesh; pulp
  5. media; video
  6. main part of an object

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

肉：胾肉。象形。凡肉之屬皆从肉。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 動物體中由蛋白質、纖維素等構成的柔韌組織，用以包住骨骼。 例：肌肉、雞肉、豬肉
  2. 身體。 例：肉身、肉體
  3. 蔬果除去皮核等可以食用的部分。 例：果肉、棗肉

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 肉 was written 字形演變

  1. 肉 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 肉 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 肉 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 肉 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 肉 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 肉