疤

bā
noun HSK 7-9 #6,336

Measure Word

一道疤 dào

Meanings

  1. 1 scar
  2. 2 mark from a wound

Characters

Examples

HSK 4
Tā liǎnshàng yǒu yī dào bā.
He has a scar on his face.
HSK 6
Zhège shāngkǒu huì liúxià bā ma?
Will this wound leave a scar?

Tips

usage
疤 is the short form. The full word is 疤痕. 疤 alone is more casual and common in speech.

Components

radical
疒 nè
sickness; ailment
The sickness radical wraps the top-left - a pictograph of a person on a bed, used for everything related to illness, injury, and bodily damage. Its presence in 疼 ache, 病 illness, 痛 pain, 痕 mark instantly classes 疤 as a wound. Here it tells you the 巴 inside isn't a snake - it's a scar.
phonetic
巴 bā
to cling; cling-mark (here phonetic)
Inside is 巴, supplying the sound bā exactly. It originally pictured a coiled snake or clinging shape - fittingly, the leftover mark a wound clings to the skin. Same phonetic in 把 to hold, 爸 dad, 吧 sentence-final particle. Here: the cling-shape under the sickness wrap = a clinging scar.

Stroke Order

疤 bā