About
The character "鼻" for nose derives from the earlier pictograph "自", which originally depicted a nose but through common gesture shifted to mean "self", creating ambiguity that required resolution. To specify the anatomical sense, the character was formed by adding the component "畀" beneath "自", resulting in a semantic-phonetic compound where "自" suggests the meaning and "畀" indicates pronunciation. While steadfastly denoting the physical nose, the character also expanded metaphorically to convey the concept of a beginning or source, as in the compound "鼻祖" for originator, demonstrating how its semantic range widened even as its graphical structure stabilized to address an earlier lexical gap.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
我的鼻子很痒。
他揉了揉鼻子。
感冒时鼻子不通。
医生检查了他的鼻子。
她的鼻梁挺直很漂亮。
鼻炎让他经常打喷嚏。
他说话带有浓重的鼻音。
嗅觉主要依靠鼻子内的感受器。