Origin

This character combines the flesh radical 肉 with the sound hint component 府. The 肉 part makes sense because decay and rot most visibly happen to meat and other organic matter—when flesh spoils, it becomes sour and breaks down. The 府 component gives you a rough pronunciation guide rather than adding to the meaning. Together, the character's picture of corrupted flesh captures what happens when something decays: the decay process that makes food turn sour and unusable.

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