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As a phono-semantic compound, 肓 uses the semantic flesh radical 月 (a variant of 肉) at the bottom to indicate a connection to bodily tissue or organs. The top component 亡 serves as the phonetic marker, providing its pronunciation. In traditional Chinese medicine, the character denotes the vital anatomical region between the heart and the diaphragm. It appears in the classical idiom "病入膏肓" (bìng rù gāo huāng), describing an illness that has penetrated this deep area of the body to signify an incurable condition. Thus, its structure pairs a bodily classifier with a phonetic element to name a conceptually significant internal location.
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