病院
びょういん · byouin · JLPT N5 · noun
hospital
🏥 病院 = sickness (病) + institution (院): the sick-house
病 (byou) means illness, as in 病気 (byouki, sick). 院 (in) is an institution, as in 大学院 (graduate school). Watch the long vowel: byouin is hospital, while biyouin (美容院) is a beauty salon.
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.'
院 — left ear 阝(阜) + complete 完
院 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left 阝 (from 阜, mound/hill) suggests walls or enclosed terrain, hinting at an enclosed space. The right 完 (wán) provides the sound and originally meant 'complete', so 院 came to mean a walled courtyard or institution like a hospital or academy.