阉 (yān): to castrate

Meanings

1 to castrate
2 to neuter

Characters

阉

yān

to castrate; eunuch

Examples

古代的太监都是被阉的。

Gǔdài de tàijiàn dōu shì bèi yān de.

Eunuchs in ancient times were all castrated.

这只猫已经阉了。

Zhè zhī māo yǐjīng yān le.

This cat has been neutered.

Tips

history

Castration was a punishment and a prerequisite for court eunuchs (太监) throughout Chinese imperial history. The practice ended with the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912.

Components

radical

门 mén

gate; door

Outer gate radical - the indexing radical. Pictograph of a swing-leaf doorway. Originally 阉 named a palace gatekeeper, the eunuch officials stationed at inner palace doors. The radical preserves that institutional context; later the meaning narrowed to the act of castration itself.

phonetic

奄 yǎn

to cover; suddenly

Inside 奄 supplies the sound: yǎn → yān with tone shift. Same phonetic family: 庵 hermitage, 淹 submerge, 掩 cover. Faint semantic flavor of 'covering, suppressing' chimes with the procedural meaning. Pairing reads as 'the cover-man at the gate,' echoing the historical role of palace eunuchs.