胜负
shèng fù · HSK 5
victory or defeat
🏆 胜负 = victory + defeat; the win-or-lose outcome
胜 means win/victory, 负 means lose/defeat. Together 胜负 names the binary outcome of a contest — who won and who lost. Common in sports and battle contexts.
胜 — flesh 月 (肉) + 生 sheng phonetic
胜 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the 月 (originally 肉 'flesh/meat') element gave it an early meaning related to raw or rank-smelling meat, while 生 supplied the sound. In modern Chinese it was adopted as the simplified form of 勝, meaning 'to win' or 'to surpass', so today it almost always carries that victory sense.
负 — person 𠂉 (人) on top + cowrie shell 贝
Originally depicted a person carrying cowrie shells (money), showing someone bearing a load or owing wealth. From this came the meanings 'to carry on the back,' 'to bear a burden,' and by extension 'to owe' or 'negative.' The simplified form 负 keeps 贝 (shell/money) under a person.