甙 (dài): glycoside (old chemistry term,…

Meanings

1 glycoside (old chemistry term, displaced by 苷)

Characters

甙

dài

glycoside

Examples

HSK 7-9

车前、甘草、陈皮都含甙。

Chēqián, gāncǎo, chénpí dōu hán dài.

Plantain seeds, licorice and tangerine peel all contain glycosides.

HSK 7-9

人参皂甙是典型的植物甙类化合物。

Rénshēn zào dài shì diǎnxíng de zhíwù dài lèi huàhéwù.

Ginseng saponins are a typical class of plant glycosides.

Tips

usage

甙 is the older Chinese chemistry term for 'glycoside' - a class of organic compounds in which a sugar is bonded to a non-sugar molecule. The PRC chemistry standards committee replaced it with 苷 in 1956, but the older spelling persists in pharmacology, traditional-medicine writing and many monograph titles.

memory

Mnemonic: the character is a one-shot pictograph - 弋 (a stake or marker, here phonetic giving dài) sits on top of 甘 (sweet, the sugar half). 'Marker on sugar' = a sugar attached to something else = glycoside. Almost a coined logogram for the chemistry concept.

register

Scientific / traditional-medicine register. Modern textbooks prefer 苷; legacy literature and pharmacopoeia entries still use 甙. Both terms appear in pharmacy practice - don't confuse the two readings.

Components

radical

甘 gān

sweet

Bottom 甘 (Kangxi #99, sweet) - the sugar half of the chemistry concept. Together with the dài phonetic the graph reads 'a dài-class sweet substance' = glycoside. Indexed under 甘.

phonetic

弋 yì

stake; arrow with cord (here phonetic)

Top 弋 (a small bent stake or hunting-arrow with cord) - phonetic for the dài reading. Same phonetic in 代, 袋, 贷.