• bed, couch, platform;

Etymology

Mixed phono-semantic/semantic compound:

广 (엄, “house, shelter”) — denotes building/interior.

木 (목, “wood”) — originally the phonetic element (from 牀), also adds meaning “wooden structure.”

Thus “a raised wooden structure inside a house,” i.e., a bed, couch, or platform.

Usage in Korean

In Korean: especially refers to 평상 (wooden outdoor platform/bench).

病床 (병상) — sickbed, hospital bed

平床 (평상) — wooden outdoor platform/bench

床頭 (상두) — bedside, bedhead

床板 (상판) — bed board, wooden planking

Words that derived from

Additional notes

Semantic shift:

In Middle Chinese, 床 meant folding wooden chair (胡床) or indoor couch (榻).

Modern Chinese: primarily “bed.”

Japanese: “bed, raised floor, or floorboard.”

Korean: especially “평상,” a large wooden bench/platform, often outdoors.

Alternative forms

Traditional form: 牀 (U+7240), still used in some contexts.

평상
pyeongsang
sang
Kangxi radical:53, 广 + 4
Strokes:7
Unicode:U+5E8A
Cangjie input:
  • 戈木 (ID)
  • 難戈木 (XID)
Composition:
  • ⿸ 广 木

Neighboring characters in the dictionary

References

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