胃口
wèi koǔ · HSK 7
appetite
🍽️ 胃口 = 胃 stomach + 口 mouth; your stomach-mouth is your appetite
胃 (wèi) means stomach, 口 (kǒu) means mouth. Together the stomach-and-mouth pairing names the appetite or the liking you have for food or anything else.
胃 — 田 (field, depicting stomach contents) + 月 (flesh radical)
Originally a pictograph showing a stomach filled with grain or food on top of the flesh radical 月 (meat/body). The top component, now written as 田, depicted the stomach's contents rather than a field. The character has consistently meant 'stomach' throughout its history.
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.