药

See also: 藥 and 葯

药 U+836F, 药 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-836F ← 荮 [U+836E] CJK Unified Ideographs 荰 → [U+8370]

Translingual

Stroke order

Traditional	藥
Shinjitai	薬
Simplified	药

Han character

药 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+6, 9 strokes, cangjie input 廿女一戈 (TVMI), four-corner 4412₇, composition ⿱艹约)

Related characters

• 藥 (Orthodox traditional form of 药)
• 葯 (Originally listed as a simplified form of 藥 in 1935, also a variant form of 藥 in modern Taiwan)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 1031, character 38
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3212, character 13
• Unihan data for U+836F

Chinese

Etymology 1

Glyph origin

Simplified from 藥, which was originally simplified as 葯／药 by the Republic of China (Kuomintang government) in 1935 and by the People's Republic of China in 1956 before being simplified to its present form.

Definitions

For pronunciation and definitions of 药 – see 藥 (“medicine; drug; pharmaceutical; substance used for a particular purpose; etc.”). (This character, 药, is the simplified form of 藥.)

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Etymology 2

Glyph origin

Simplified from 葯 (約 → 约) (original sense unrelated to 藥), based on simplification of its radical component.

Definitions

For pronunciation and definitions of 药 – see 葯 (“Angelica dahurica; orris root; etc.”). (This character, 药, is the simplified form of 葯.)

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Usage notes

In mainland China, 藥／药, rather than 葯／药 is listed officially as the traditional form of 药.