shī
noun #21,340

Measure Word

zhī

Meanings

  1. 1 louse
  2. 2 lice

Characters

Examples

Háizi de tóu shàng zhǎng le shīzi.
The child had lice in their hair.
Shīzi kào xī xuè wéishēng.
Lice survive by sucking blood.

Tips

usage
alone is the literary/formal form; in everyday speech 虱子 is far more common. 头虱 (head lice) and 体虱 (body lice) are common collocations.

Components

radical
chóng
insect
(the insect radical) sits inside the upper-right wrap and supplies the literal meaning - is a small insect, specifically a louse. groups it with (mosquito), (bee), (snake) and the rest of the creepy-crawly family.
semantic
shī
louse with insect-radical core (graphic residue)
The top-right corner is a fused two-stroke remnant - historically a stylised pair of louse legs or claws hooked above the body. Standalone parts here have collapsed into an unanalysable shape, so the residue rides as a single graphic unit framing the bug below.

Stroke Order

shī