腰 (yāo): waist

Measure Word

一个腰 gè

Meanings

1 waist
2 lower back

Characters

腰

yāo

waist; lower back

月 (flesh radical) + 要 (yào, want/need) — the body part you need to bend

Examples

她的腰很细。

Tā de yāo hěn xì.

Her waist is very slim.

我的腰有点疼。

Wǒ de yāo yǒudiǎn téng.

My lower back hurts a bit.

弯腰把东西捡起来。

Wānyāo bǎ dōngxi jiǎn qǐlái.

Bend your waist to pick it up.

Tips

usage

腰 covers both the waist and lower back in Chinese — there's no separate everyday word for 'lower back.' 腰疼 can mean either waist pain or lower back pain.

culture

弯腰 (wān yāo, bend at the waist) and 直腰 (zhí yāo, straighten up) are common in Chinese idioms. 腰包 (yāobāo) literally means 'waist bag' — a fanny pack.

Components

radical

⺼ ròu

flesh; meat (radical, variant of 肉)

Left flesh radical — the compound-position form of 肉, visually identical to 月 (moon) but semantically distinct. Tags 腰 as a body part: same family as 腿 leg, 脸 face, 肚 belly, 胸 chest, 肌 muscle. Whenever this radical appears on the left of a compound, expect a body-and-anatomy reading.

phonetic

要 yāo

waist (original); to want (phonetic + semantic)

Right side 要 supplies the sound — yào drifted to yāo — with a perfect semantic echo. 要 originally pictured a woman with hands on her hips, drawing attention to the waist; 要 was the word for 'waist' before 腰 took over. So 腰 = flesh + waist-graphic = waist.