肉

See also ⺼

Translingual

Stroke order

Alternative forms

• ⺼ (when used as a left Chinese radical in compositions)

The radical form ⺼ looks very similar to 月 (“moon”), and is often drawn identically in compounds, though they are etymologically distinct, and careful usage distinguishes the cross strokes, with ⺼ written with unattached diagonal strokes. This is particularly an issue in looking up characters by radical; compare 月 index and 肉 index.

The radical form ⺼ may also appear twisted to a diagonal, resembling 夕 with an added dot, as in 祭, 然, and 將.

Phonosemantic interpretation

Old Chinese Initial /*n-/ lends semantic value Supple. Vowel /*-o-/ lends semantic value Curvature or Curve and surround/envelop. Pictogram (象形) of a slab of soft animal meat with the veins exposed. Source: Howell & Morimoto

Etymology

Pictogram (象形) – ribs of an animal’s torso.

肉	肉
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Han character

肉 (radical 130 肉+0, 6 strokes, cangjie input 人月人 (OBO), four-corner 4022₇)

1. flesh
2. meat
3. pulp (of a fruit)
4. KangXi radical 130

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/肉
• 將 (top right component)
• 祭 (top left component)

References

• KangXi: page 973, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 29236
• Dae Jaweon: page 1424, character 4
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 5, page 2931, character 1
• Unihan data for U+8089

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Cantonese

Hanzi

肉 (Yale yuk6)

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Hakka

Hanzi

肉 (POJ nyuk, Guangdong ngiuk⁷; niuk⁷ [Meixian], Hagfa Pinyim ngiug5)

References

• CCDICT (Chineselanguage.org)
• Academia Sinica - Hakka-English Dictionary
• Lau, Chun-fat. Hakka Pinyin Dictionary (Chinese). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1997 (Chinese IME supplement) ISBN 962-201-750-9.

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Japanese

Noun

肉 (hiragana にく, romaji niku)

1. meat
2. flesh
3. thickness
4. an ink pad

Compounds

• 肉類 (にくるい, nikurui): sort of meats
• 挽肉 (ひきにく, hikiniku): minced meat
• 牡丹肉 (ぼたんにく, botanniku): wildboar meat

Noun

肉 (hiragana しし, romaji shishi)

1. flesh

Kanji

肉 (grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: にく (niku), じゅう (jū)
• Kun: しし (shishi)

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Korean

Hanja

肉 (hangeul 육, 유, revised yuk, yu, McCune-Reischauer yuk, yu, Yale yuk, yu)

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Mandarin

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɻou̯˥˩/

• audio

  (file)

Hanzi

肉 (pinyin ròu (rou4), Wade-Giles jou⁴)

1. meat

Compounds

• 肉案
• 肉饼
• 肉搏
• 肉搏战
• 肉畜
• 肉丁
• 肉嘟嘟, 肉嘟嘟的
• 肉墩墩, 肉敦敦
• 肉感
• 肉红
• 肉呼呼, 肉乎乎
• 肉鸡
• 肉瘤
• 肉麻
• 肉囊囊
• 肉牛
• 肉排

• 肉皮
• 肉皮儿
• 肉票, 肉票儿
• 肉禽
• 肉色
• 肉身
• 肉食
• 肉丝
• 肉松
• 肉体
• 肉痛
• 肉头
• 肉馅, 肉馅儿
• 肉刑
• 肉眼
• 肉眼凡胎
• 肉眼泡儿
• 肉用鸡
• 肉欲
• 肉质
• 肉中刺
• 肉猪

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Middle Chinese

Han character

肉 (*njiuk)

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Min Nan

Noun

肉 (traditional and simplified, Bbinping liók/liák/zziók (Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou literary, respectively); hiák (Quanzhou colloquial); bbāh (slang))

1. meat
2. main part of thing (in this case 肉 can only be read as bbāh)

Note: the slang reading of this word, bbāh, has no cognate in other dialects of Chinese. It is of possible Austronesian origin (perhaps from Proto-Austronesian babuy, meaning "wild pig" (see baboy)).

Compounds

• 肉酥
• 刀肉

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Vietnamese

Han character

肉 (nhục)