脾

pí · HSK 7

spleen

月 flesh radical + 卑 bēi (phonetic) = a fleshy body organ: the spleen

The 月 radical (flesh/body) tags 脾 as an internal organ; 卑 bēi supplies the sound that shifted to pí. Many organ characters share this 月 flesh radical, like 肝 liver and 肺 lung.

脾 — flesh radical 月 (肉) + 卑 bēi (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 月 (a form of 肉 'flesh/organ') signals a body organ, while 卑 supplies the sound, originally close to 'pí'. It denotes the spleen in traditional Chinese medicine, long viewed as central to digestion and the transformation of food into qi.

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