秽 (huì) · filthy, foul, dirty (classical/literary)

Meanings

1 filthy
2 foul
3 dirty (classical/literary)

Characters

秽

huì

filthy / foul / dirty

Examples

HSK 7-9

他出口秽语，令在场的人十分不悦。

Tā chūkǒu huì yǔ, lìng zàichǎng de rén shífēn búyuè.

He uttered foul language, making everyone present very displeased.

HSK 7-9

污秽之地不宜久留。

Wūhuì zhī dì bùyí jiǔliú.

One should not linger in a filthy place.

HSK 7-9

古代祭祀前须沐浴斋戒，以去秽气。

Gǔdài jìsì qián xū mùyù zhāijiè, yǐ qù huì qì.

Before ancient sacrificial rites, one had to bathe and fast to cleanse oneself of foul qi.

Tips

usage

秽 is a classical/literary bound form - it almost never appears alone in modern Chinese. It compounds into words like 污秽 (filth), 秽语 (obscene language), 淫秽 (obscene/indecent), and 自惭形秽 (to feel ashamed of oneself).

Components

radical

禾 hé

grain; growing crop

Left grain radical 禾 - a stalk of millet with a drooping head, the standard indexing radical for crop and agriculture characters. In 秽 it pictures weeds choking grain: filthy overgrowth that ruins a field. Same family: 稻 rice, 秋 autumn, 种 seed, 私 private.

phonetic

岁 suì

year; age

Right 岁 supplies the sound - suì drifting to huì via the s/h alternation seen in older Chinese. 岁 is a simplified form of 歲, originally a harvest-tally character, faintly reinforcing the agricultural backdrop of weeds running wild season after season.