屁 (pì): fart

Meanings

1 fart
2 nonsense
3 bullshit

Characters

屁

pì

fart; nonsense

Examples

谁放屁了？

Shéi fàngpì le?

Who farted?

你懂个屁！

Nǐ dǒng gè pì!

You don't know shit!

他说的都是屁话。

Tā shuō de dōu shì pìhuà.

Everything he said is nonsense.

Tips

usage

屁 is used literally (fart) and as a vulgar intensifier meaning 'not at all' or 'nonsense'. 放屁 (fàngpì) literally means 'to fart' but also means 'bullshit!'. 屁话 = nonsense talk.

grammar

In the pattern verb + 个屁, 屁 acts as a dismissive negator: 懂个屁 (know nothing), 有个屁用 (completely useless).

Components

radical

尸 shī

body; corpse

Top body radical (Kangxi #44) — originally a picture of a seated person with bent body, NOT primarily 'corpse' (that meaning came later). In compounds 尸 indexes body-related characters, especially anything to do with bodily output: 尾 tail, 屎 feces, 尿 urine, 屁 fart. The radical's domain is the body and its lower functions.

phonetic

比 bǐ

compare (here phonetic)

Bottom 比 supplies the sound — bǐ → pì, within the labial b/p series. Pure phonetic loan; the 'compare' meaning is inert. Same phonetic in 批 pī (group), 毗 pí (adjoin). 比 itself depicts two figures standing side by side — visually unrelated to 屁's meaning but a memorable shape.