Origin

The kanji 肌 combines the radical 月, which represents flesh or the body, with the component 几 on the right, which serves as a sound hint suggesting the character's pronunciation. The 月 radical makes sense for a word about skin and texture since skin is part of the body's surface. Over time, this character came to mean not just the physical body but also the texture and grain of a surface, as skin has a particular quality or feel to it.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).