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As a phono-semantic compound, 砭 (biān) is formed with the semantic radical 石 (stone) on the left, indicating its material, and the phonetic component 乏 (fá) on the right. Its original meaning is a stone needle used in ancient medicine to puncture the skin for treatment. This sense later extended to the act of piercing or scraping the skin, and eventually developed a figurative meaning: to offer sharp, corrective criticism.
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