伤口
shāngkǒu · HSK 6
wound
🩹🔪 shāng (injure) + kǒu (mouth/opening) = an opening made by injury
The first character 伤 means hurt or injure. The second 口 means mouth or opening. Together they describe the opening left when skin is cut or torn — a wound.
伤 — person radical 亻 + 㿝 (phonetic)
伤 is the simplified form of 傷. It combines the person radical 亻, indicating a human being affected, with a phonetic component derived from 昜. The original sense was a wound or injury to a person, which extended to mean 'to hurt,' 'injury,' and figuratively 'to grieve' or 'sorrow.'
口 — pictograph of an open mouth
口 is one of the oldest pictographs in Chinese, originally drawn as a simple outline of an open mouth. Its core meaning 'mouth' extended naturally to 'opening' or 'entrance', as in 入口 (entrance). It also serves as a common radical in characters related to speech, eating, or apertures.