adjective/noun #18,218

Meanings

  1. 1 rotten; decayed; corrupt
  2. 2 bean curd; tofu

Examples

Dòufu shì Zhōngguó chuántǒng shípǐn.
Tofu is a traditional Chinese food.
Zhèngfǔ zài fǎn fǔbài.
The government is fighting corruption.

Tips

usage
豆腐 (tofu), 腐败 (corruption), 腐烂 (to rot) are key compounds.

Components

radical
ròu
flesh; meat
Full-form sits at the bottom (rather than the usual ⺼ side-form) and is the indexing radical. Meat under a roof spoils — the literal seed of rotten / decayed — and the radical also explains why bean curd 豆腐 is written with this character.
semantic
广 guǎng
shelter; lean-to roof
The slanting roof on the upper left frames as something kept indoors — a shed or storehouse. Food left under such a roof is exactly what spoils, an apt visual for the rotting and fermentation senses.
phonetic
to hand over; pay
Tucked under the roof, supplies the sound, shifting from fù to fǔ. The original (a hand passing something) is irrelevant here — it is recruited for the rhyme that links with , and .

Stroke Order