Definitions
sacrificial flesh
Etymology
About
The character 膟 is a phono-semantic compound: the radical 月 (flesh) provides its semantic category of meat or bodily tissue, while 卒 gives the phonetic pronunciation. Originally, it specifically denoted the flesh of animals prepared for formal religious or ancestral sacrifices. The flesh radical indicates the substance itself, and the phonetic component distinguishes this ceremonial meat from ordinary terms for food. Its use is largely confined to historical and classical texts, appearing in descriptions of state or family sacrificial rites and their procedures. Thus, the character's structure directly reflects its specialized meaning as a ritual material.
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