被
- to wear, to cover oneself with, garment, quilt;
Etymology
It is a phono-semantic compound, composed of:
衣 (“clothing, garment”) as the semantic element;
皮 (“skin, hide”) as the phonetic element.
The original sense was “to cover with clothing or fabric.”
Usage in Korean
被 evolved from a concrete meaning of covering the body with cloth or hide into a highly productive character expressing clothing, bedding, and passive constructions in both grammar and compound vocabulary.
In Korean, 피 (被) appears in many compounds relating to clothing, covering, or being subjected to something:
피복 (被服) – clothing, apparel
이불 (被褥) – blanket, bedding
피해 (被害) – damage, harm (lit. “to receive harm”)
피격 (被擊) – being attacked
피살 (被殺) – being killed
Here the passive nuance also survives in words denoting suffering harm or being subjected to an action.
- 中木竹水 (LDHE)
- ⿰ 衤 皮