衄 (nǜ): nosebleed; bleeding from the no…

Meanings

1 nosebleed; bleeding from the nose, ears, or gums
2 (figurative) to suffer defeat; setback

Characters

衄

nǜ

nosebleed; defeat

Examples

HSK 5

反复鼻衄可能提示更深层的健康问题。

Fǎnfù bínǜ kěnéng tíshì gèng shēncéng de jiànkāng wèntí.

Recurrent nosebleeds may indicate a deeper health problem.

HSK 7-9

东线师徒小衄。

Dōngxiàn shītú xiǎo nǜ.

The army suffered a small defeat on the eastern front.

Tips

usage

Chinese-medicine register. The standard compound is 鼻衄 (epistaxis / nosebleed) - a TCM diagnostic term still used in textbooks of 中医. Other named bleeds: 齿衄 (gum bleeding), 肌衄 (subcutaneous bleeding). The figurative 'defeat' sense appears in classical historical writing - e.g. Cao Zhi's 《求自试表》 - but is no longer current.

register

Medical / classical. Spoken Chinese uses 流鼻血 for nosebleed; 鼻衄 is reserved for clinical or TCM contexts. The reading nǜ (with a 'ü' vowel) is unusual; some dictionaries also list 衄 as a colloquial variant.

Components

radical

血 xuè

blood

Left 血 (Kangxi #143, blood) - anchors the meaning unambiguously in bleeding. Same radical drives 衅 (blood-rite / quarrel) and 衊 (slander, traditional only).

phonetic

丑 chǒu

phonetic element

Right 丑 supplies the sound (chǒu to nǜ in Old Chinese was within a single retroflex / palatal cluster series). Same phonetic in 扭 (twist), 钮 (button), 纽 (knot) - n-initial neighbors that confirm the reading family.