yào / nüè
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 a bout of malaria; the malarial shakes (colloquial)

Examples

Tā yòu fàn yàozi le, húnshēn fādǒu.
He came down with the malarial shakes again, shivering all over.
Guòqù fā yàozi jiùshì lǎobǎixìng shuō de nüèjí.
In the old days, having the shakes was the everyday word for malaria.

Tips

usage
This yào reading is colloquial and used only in 疟子, the everyday spoken word for a malaria attack. The medical term is 疟疾, read with nüè.

Components

radical
sickness; illness
The sickness radical wraps the top and left, a bed-and-illness sign that marks every disease character; here it tells you names an illness.
phonetic
nüè
cruel; to maltreat
The inner part is a contracted form of (full standalone shape has more strokes). It supplies the sound and a fitting flavor, since malaria's violent recurring fevers were felt as a cruel torment.

Stroke Order

yào