About
The character "胴" is constructed from the semantic component 肉 (flesh), which appears in its modern form as 月 (肉月), combined with the phonetic component 同. Its core meaning refers to the main trunk or torso of a human or animal body. From this primary sense of a central, hollow column of flesh, the meaning extended by analogy to denote any similar hollow, cylindrical form, such as the barrel of a gun or a section of pipe.