～病

～びょう · ～byou · JLPT N2 · noun

disease

🦠 疒 sickbed radical + 丙; byou sounds like bio, the -disease suffix

Put ～病 after a noun to name a kind of disease: 心臓病 (heart disease), 糖尿病 (diabetes). The 疒 radical marks illness kanji such as 痛 (pain) and 疲 (tired).

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.'

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