瘦
shòu · HSK 5
thin
radical 疒 (sickness) + 叟 (old man) — illness wastes the body thin
The 疒 radical marks illness or affliction; 叟 (sǒu, old man) also hints at the shòu sound. Together: a sickness that wastes the body away, hence skinny or emaciated. Contrast with 胖 (fat).
瘦 — sickness radical 疒 + 叟 (old man)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The 疒 radical depicts a person on a bed and signals illness or bodily condition, while 叟 supplies the sound. Originally meaning gaunt or wasted from sickness, it broadened to the neutral sense of 'thin' or 'lean'.