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服

fú
noun HSK 6 #2,400

Meanings

  1. 1 clothes; clothing
  2. 2 to serve; to obey
  3. 3 to take (medicine)
  4. 4 to convince; to admire

Examples

你喜欢穿什么衣服？
Nǐ xǐhuan chuān shénme yīfu?
What kind of clothes do you like to wear?
我服了，你太厉害了。
Wǒ fú le, nǐ tài lìhai le.
I give in — you're too good.
每天服药两次。
Měitiān fúyào liǎngcì.
Take the medicine twice a day.

Tips

usage
Three meaning clusters around the fú reading: (1) clothing — 衣服, 校服, 汉服; (2) submit / serve — 服从, 服务, 佩服, 克服; (3) ingest (medicine) — 服药, 口服. The common thread: yielding to something — yielding your body to clothes, yielding to authority, yielding by swallowing medicine.
register
Second reading 服 (fourth tone) is a measure word for doses of traditional Chinese medicine — 一服中药 ('one dose of Chinese medicine'). Only appears in this counter use; the verb 'to take medicine' is still 服药 (fú). Taiwan often reads even the classifier as fú, so mainland teaching materials are the main place you'll see fù.

Components

radical
月 yuè
flesh / boat (radical)
Left 月 is the indexing radical — historically a contracted 舟 (boat) here, not the moon. 服 originally pictured a hand pressing someone down onto a boat, the act of subjugation. Modern Kangxi files it under 月 by graphic shape, but the boat origin underlies the 'submit / serve' core meaning.
semantic
卩 jié
kneeling figure
Top-right 卩 — depicts a person kneeling in compliance. Combined with the hand 又 below, the right side shows someone forced down into submission. This is the visual root of 'submit, obey, wear (clothes that obey the body)' — the body bowed under control.
semantic
又 yòu
right hand
Bottom-right 又 — pictograph of a right hand. Pressing down on the kneeling figure 卩 above, completing the 'force into compliance' image. The right side as a whole supplies the fú reading and the subjugation semantics; alone 又 just contributes the active hand pressing down.

Stroke Order

服 fú