病

A phono-semantic compound, combining:

疒 (“sick, illness”) as the semantic element;

丙 (byeong, “south, third heavenly stem”) as the phonetic element.

병(病) is one of the most productive medical-related Sino-Korean morphemes. Common words include:

병원 (病院) – hospital

질병 (疾病) – disease, sickness

중병 (重病) – serious illness

발병 (發病) – onset of disease

병자 (病者) – sick person, patient

병세 (病勢) – the progress/severity of a disease

병약 (病弱) – weak, sickly

병폐 (病弊) – social ill, vice, corruption (metaphorical use)

Not to be confused with 甁 (병, “bottle, container”), which has the same Korean reading but different meaning.

Pronunciation: 病 is a long vowel in Korean Sino-reading. However, when used in compounds, due to saisiot (사잇소리) linking, it is often pronounced as [뼝].

In the Second Round Simplification (二簡字) of Chinese characters, it was once proposed to drop the phonetic 丙 and write only 疒 as the simplified form. However, that reform was later abandoned, so 病 is still used unchanged.