fèn
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 (classical) to fall prostrate; to topple over
  2. 2 (classical) to ruin; to bring to defeat

Examples

Shǐ jūnduì fùmiè jiùshì fèn de gǔyì.
A general who brings his army to ruin is the classical sense of this character.

Tips

history
is not an independent word in modern Chinese. In classical texts it means to fall flat or to bring something to ruin (a defeated general was a of his army). It pairs the person radical with the phonetic , the same phonetic in and .
register
Classical and literary only; encountered in old prose and etymology notes, not in modern speech, where 失败 or 毁坏 are used.

Components

radical
rén
person
is the side-form of , the person radical. It marks as an action a person undergoes — falling prostrate, or being the one who ruins an enterprise.
phonetic
bēn
energetic; ornate (phonetic)
gives the sound, drifted from bēn to fèn. The same phonetic appears in and , a bēn/fèn/pēn sound family.

Stroke Order

fèn