退院
たいいんする · taiinsuru · JLPT N4 · noun
hospital
🏥 退院 = retreat (退) + institution (院): withdrawing from the hospital
退 means to retreat or withdraw; 院 is the institution in 病院 (hospital). Its opposite is 入院, enter + institution, being admitted. Tai-in: you TIE up your stay and you are no longer IN.
退 — walk radical 辶 + 艮 (stop/halt)
退 combines the walking/movement radical 辶 with 艮, which carries a sense of stopping or turning back. Together they depict the action of moving backward or withdrawing. The original sense of retreating or stepping back has remained stable through history.
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.