粪

糞
fèn
noun HSK 7-9 #8,826

Meanings

  1. 1 manure
  2. 2 dung
  3. 3 excrement

Examples

HSK 7-9
Nóngmín yòng niúfèn zuò féiliào.
Farmers use cow dung as fertilizer.
HSK 7-9
Fènbiàn xūyào tuǒshàn chǔlǐ.
Excrement needs to be properly handled.

Components

radical
米 mǐ
rice; grain
Top rice radical - the indexing radical. Etymologically the top was 釆 (animal tracks, the source of 番), reanalyzed into 米 in the modern shape. The image is that of undigested grain in animal droppings - a bluntly literal compound ideograph for 'manure'. Pair with 屎 (excrement).
semantic
共 gòng
together; both hands holding
Bottom 共 - two hands lifting an object up. In 粪 it depicts the act of two hands sweeping up the night soil with a dustpan, giving the original verb sense 'to sweep clean'. The classical 粪除 'to sweep away' preserves this meaning; the noun 'manure' grew out of what was being swept.

Stroke Order

粪 fèn