医醫 yī — medicine, the healing art; to treat, to cure; a doctor
yī (first tone, high and level)
Traditional: 醫
medicine, the healing art; to treat, to cure; a doctor
7 strokesRadical 匚Frequency #409
Pinyin
- yī (first tone, high and level)
medicine, the healing art; to treat, to cure; a doctor
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿷匚矢The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 匚meaning partno entry yetA case open on one side — here a quiver.
- 矢meaning partno entry yetAn arrow standing in the case. The original 医 was simply "a quiver of arrows"; it became the whole of 醫 when the character was simplified.
Mnemonic
A quiver 匚 with an arrow 矢 in it. That is all 医 ever meant on its own — the healing sense belongs to the traditional 醫, which stacks this quiver and a hand with a weapon over 酉, a wine jar, because alcohol was the ancient physician’s antiseptic and solvent. Simplification kept only the top-left corner. 医生 a doctor, 医院 a hospital, 中医 Chinese medicine.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.