腔

It refers primarily to empty or enclosed spaces inside the body, and by extension to voice tone, manner of speech, or musical style.

A phono-semantic compound:

肉 (body, flesh) — semantic component

空 (빌 공) — phonetic component, empty, hollow

The original meaning was “a hollow space inside the body.” From this concrete anatomical sense, the meaning later extended metaphorically to vocal tone, resonance, and stylistic expression.

In Korean, 腔 is mainly used in medical and anatomical terms refers to internal bodily spaces.

체강 (體腔) — body cavity

흉강 (胸腔) — thoracic cavity

복강 (腹腔) — abdominal cavity

구강 (口腔) — oral cavity

비강 (鼻腔) — nasal cavity

공명강 (共鳴腔) — resonating cavity

속빈강 (literary) — hollow interior

Related characters:

空 — empty; void

洞 — cave; hollow

孔 — hole; opening

脘 — stomach cavity

Classical citations:

《黃帝內經》 (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic)

「腔理不通，則氣不行。」

“If the bodily cavities are obstructed, vital energy cannot circulate.”

《本草綱目》 (Compendium of Materia Medica)

「腔中有氣，聲乃成。」

“When there is air within the cavity, sound is produced.”

《廣雅》 (Guangya)

「腔，虛也。」

“腔 means emptiness.”