糖尿病
tángniàobìng · HSK 7
diabetes
🍬 糖 sugar + 尿 urine + 病 disease = sugar-urine-disease = diabetes
The name is a literal three-part compound: 糖 (táng, sugar) + 尿 (niào, urine) + 病 (bìng, disease). It describes the classic symptom of sugar passing into the urine, which is exactly what glycosuria means.
糖 — rice radical 米 + 唐 táng (phonetic)
糖 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 米 (rice/grain) signals the meaning, since sugar was historically produced from grains and cane. The right side 唐 supplies the sound 'táng'. Originally referring to malt sugar made from grains, the word later broadened to mean sugar and sweets in general.
尿 — corpse 尸 over water 水
An ideogrammic compound combining 尸 (body, here representing a person) over 水 (water), depicting bodily fluid leaving the body. The character has retained its original meaning of urine since ancient times. The reading suī is a colloquial variant used in some dialects.
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.'