腰

The Chinese character 腰 (yāo) for "waist" is composed of two parts: the radical ⾎ (xuè) meaning "blood" and the phonetic component 腰 (yāo) meaning "waist". The character 腰 originally meant "the part of the body where the blood flows", and later extended to mean "waist".The radical ⾎ (xuè) is a pictograph of a drop of blood. It is one of the most common radicals in Chinese characters, and it is used in many characters related to blood, such as 血 (xuè) "blood", 脉 (mài) "pulse", and 瘀 (yù) "bruise".The phonetic component 腰 (yāo) is a phonetic loan character. It is borrowed from the Old Chinese word *yāu, which meant "waist". The character 腰 is also used in other characters related to the waist, such as 腰带 (yāodài) "belt" and 腰椎 (yāozhuī) "lumbar vertebra".The character 腰 (yāo) is a common character in Chinese. It is used in many words and phrases related to the waist, such as 腰酸背痛 (yāosuān bèitòng) "backache", 腰缠万贯 (yāochán wàn guàn) "very rich", and 腰斩 (yāozhǎn) "to cut in half at the waist".