胡

hú
noun #3,474

Meanings

  1. 1 reckless; carelessly
  2. 2 non-Han ethnic groups (historical)
  3. 3 beard; whiskers

Examples

HSK 2
Bié húshuō!
Don't talk nonsense!
HSK 4
Tā liú le húzi.
He grew a beard.

Tips

usage
胡说 (to talk nonsense), 胡子 (beard), 胡同 (hutong/alley).

Components

radical
⺼ ròu
flesh (right-side radical)
Right flesh radical - visually 月 but historically the contracted 肉. Anchors 胡 in body-parts vocabulary: the original lexical sense was 'jowl, dewlap, hanging flesh under the chin,' from which came 胡子 (beard, whiskers) and by extension 'reckless, careless' (loose like a dewlap). Same radical in 脸 (face), 肤 (skin), 肠 (intestine).
phonetic
古 gǔ
ancient; old (phonetic)
Left phonetic 古 - supplies the sound (gǔ drifted to hú via Old Chinese onset shift, regular for this group). Originally 十 + 口 'ten generations of mouths' = ancient. Faintly semantic: 胡 historically named ancient northern peoples (胡人), so 古 'old' adds antiquity flavour. Family: 湖, 蝴, 糊, 葫.

Stroke Order

胡 hú