忌口
jì koǔ · HSK 7
abstain from certain food
🚫🍰 忌 avoid/taboo + 口 mouth = put a taboo on your mouth, so skip certain foods
忌 means to avoid or shun (a taboo), and 口 is mouth. Together they mark the mouth as off-limits to specific foods, like a diet when ill. The 己 in 忌 also hints at the jì sound.
忌 — heart 心 + self 己 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 心 ('heart/mind') gives the meaning, while 己 ('self') supplies the sound. The heart component points to inner feelings like dread or aversion, yielding senses such as 'to fear,' 'to avoid,' or 'taboo.' From there it extended to 'jealousy' and 'anniversary of a death.'
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.