About
The character 瘵 is a phono-semantic compound historically used as a medical term for severe, wasting diseases, particularly tuberculosis or similar chronic consumptive illnesses. It is structurally composed of the semantic radical 疒 (“sickness”), which wraps the top and left, indicating a pathological condition, and the phonetic component 祭 (“to sacrifice”), which provides the pronunciation “zhài.” This character is now primarily encountered in classical Chinese medical texts, traditional poetry about suffering, and historical records, as modern medicine employs different, standardized terminology for such diseases.
Etymology Hide
