胃 (wèi): stomach

Meanings

1 stomach

Characters

胃

wèi

stomach

Examples

我的胃不太舒服。

Wǒ de wèi bùtài shūfu.

My stomach doesn't feel well.

吃太多辣的对胃不好。

Chī tài duō là de duì wèi bùhǎo.

Eating too much spicy food is bad for the stomach.

他有胃病。

Tā yǒu wèibìng.

He has a stomach illness.

Tips

usage

胃 appears in 胃口 (wèikǒu, appetite), 胃病 (wèibìng, stomach illness), 肠胃 (chángwèi, gastrointestinal). The expression 没胃口 (méi wèikǒu) means 'no appetite.'

culture

In Chinese medicine, the 胃 (stomach) and 脾 (spleen) are considered a pair. 'Nurturing the spleen and stomach' (养脾胃) is a central concept in traditional health practices.

Components

radical

⺼ ròu

flesh; meat (radical form)

Bottom flesh radical (⺼ = compressed 肉, Kangxi #130) — the indexing radical (note: visually identical to 月 'moon' but semantically 'flesh'). Anchors 胃 in the body-organ family: 肝 (liver), 肺 (lung), 肠 (intestine), 肾 (kidney), 脑 (brain). The stomach (the food pouch) sits on top of the flesh radical, picturing the organ in the body.

semantic

田 tián

field (here: stomach contents)

Top 田 (field) — graphically a field with crossed paths, but in 胃 it represents the stomach pouch with food inside (the cross-shape suggesting the contents being broken up). A pictograph repurposed: not a literal field here, but the rounded sac of the stomach with grain inside. The compound is a semantic pairing, not phono-semantic.