About
The character 胂 is a phono-semantic compound, formed by the semantic radical 月 (flesh/body parts, often used in modern organic chemistry terms) and the phonetic component 申. Historically, it referred to the flesh of the spine or back, an anatomical meaning now obsolete. In contemporary Chinese, the character has been entirely repurposed as a specialized chemical term for the highly toxic compound arsine, completely supplanting its original sense.
Etymology Hide
