胰 (yí): pancreas

Measure Word

一个胰 gè

Meanings

1 pancreas

Characters

胰

yí

pancreas

Examples

HSK 7-9

胰负责分泌胰岛素来调节血糖。

Yí fùzé fēnmì yídǎosù lái tiáojié xuètáng.

The pancreas is responsible for secreting insulin to regulate blood sugar.

HSK 7-9

医生说他的胰出现了炎症。

Yīshēng shuō tā de yí chūxiàn le yánzhèng.

The doctor said his pancreas was inflamed.

HSK 7-9

胰腺癌是一种难以早期发现的疾病。

Yíxiàn ái shì yī zhǒng nányǐ zǎoqī fāxiàn de jíbìng.

Pancreatic cancer is a disease that is difficult to detect early.

Tips

usage

胰 alone refers to the pancreas organ, but in common usage it more often appears in compounds: 胰腺 (pancreas), 胰岛素 (insulin), 胰液 (pancreatic juice).

Components

radical

⺼ ròu

flesh (radical form of 肉)

Left-side flesh radical - the side form of 肉, visually identical to 月 (moon) but semantically distinct. Indexes 胰 in the body-organ family alongside 脏 organs, 胃 stomach, 肝 liver. Carries the meaning: the pancreas is an internal soft-tissue organ, and the meat radical marks it as one of the body's glands.

phonetic

夷 yí

level; barbarian

Right side 夷 supplies the sound directly - yí to yí, identical. 夷 originally pictured a person bent over a bow, classically used for eastern foreign tribes and the verbal sense to flatten - none of which transfers here. Borrowed purely as a sound match. 胰 is mostly a modern medical-anatomy term.