毛病
máobìng · HSK 3
trouble
🤒 毛病 = hair (毛) + illness (病); tiny hair-sized illness = a defect or glitch
毛 means hair/fur (something small or trivial) and 病 means illness. Together they describe a small ailment — extended to mean a defect, malfunction, or bad habit in people, machines, or plans.
毛 — pictograph of hair/fur, 4 strokes
毛 is a pictograph showing a tuft of hair or animal fur, with strands fanning out from a base. The original oracle bone form depicted feathers or fur clearly, and the meaning broadened from 'hair/fur' to include 'wool,' 'down,' and figuratively 'tiny' or 'rough.' It also became a common surname.
病 — sickness radical 疒 + 丙 (bǐng, phonetic)
病 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The radical 疒 depicts a person lying on a bed and signals illness or ailment. The component 丙 supplies the sound (bǐng → bìng). Originally 病 referred to a serious illness, contrasted with 疾 for a lighter ailment; today it broadly means 'sick' or 'disease.'