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膈 is a phono-semantic compound combining the flesh radical 月 with the phonetic 鬲. The radical marks it as an anatomical term, while 鬲 (an ancient tripod cauldron) supplies the pronunciation "gé". Some scholars note that the cauldron's partitioned interior may mirror the diaphragm's role in dividing the thoracic and abdominal cavities. The character refers to the diaphragm, the muscular sheet extending across the bottom of the thoracic cavity that separates the chest from the abdomen, and has consistently retained this precise medical meaning without semantic drift.
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