About
The character "瘰" is structured with the disease radical "疒" indicating its association with illness and the component "累" serving primarily as a phonetic indicator for its pronunciation. This character has historically been used almost exclusively in the compound term "瘰疬", referring to scrofula, a condition involving tuberculous lymph nodes. Its etymology is directly tied to this medical context, with the character's form and meaning consistently focused on denoting this specific ailment without broadening or shifting significantly over time.