疯子
fēng zi · HSK 7
madman
🤪 疯 (mad) + 子 (suffix) = mad-person
疯 carries the 疒 sickness radical over 风 (wind) — old idea of illness blown in by ill winds. 子 is a noun suffix marking a person, like 儿子 or 骗子. So 疯子 literally reads as mad-illness + person-suffix.
疯 — sickness radical 疒 + wind 风 (fēng, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The outer 疒 marks illness, while 风 (wind) supplies the sound and an older medical idea: ancient Chinese medicine blamed sudden 'wind' invading the body for fits and madness. So 疯 came to mean crazy or insane.
子 — pictograph of a baby/child with arms out
子 began as a pictograph of a swaddled infant with a large head and outstretched arms, originally meaning 'baby' or 'child.' From there it broadened to 'son,' 'offspring,' and a respectful suffix for masters like 孔子 (Confucius). It also became one of the twelve earthly branches.