朊

朊 U+670A, 朊 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-670A ← 有 [U+6709] CJK Unified Ideographs 朋 → [U+670B]

Translingual

Han character

朊 (Kangxi radical 74, 月+4, 8 strokes, cangjie input 月一一山 (BMMU), four-corner 7121₁, composition ⿰月元)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 504, character 28
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14339
• Dae Jaweon: page 883, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 2046, character 15
• Unihan data for U+670A

Chinese

Etymology 1

simp. and trad.		朊

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): ruǎn (ruan³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄖㄨㄢˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): jyun² / gun²

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: ruǎn
    • Zhuyin: ㄖㄨㄢˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: ruǎn
    • Wade–Giles: juan³
    • Yale: rwǎn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: roan
    • Palladius: жуань (žuanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ʐu̯än²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: jyun² / gun²
    • Yale: yún / gún
    • Cantonese Pinyin: jyn² / gun²
    • Guangdong Romanization: yun² / gun²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jyːn³⁵/, /kuːn³⁵/

Definitions

朊

1. moonlight shines faintly

Etymology 2

simp. and trad.		朊
alternative forms		䏓

Newly coined character. Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声) : semantic ⺼ (“flesh”) + phonetic 元 (OC *ŋon, “original; first”).

Modelled after the etymology of English "protein": from Ancient Greek πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) ― cf. 元 (yuán, “original, first”), which also acted as the phonetic component of the character.

The choice of this character for the sense of "prion" is primarily due to the nature of prions as proteins, but might also have been influenced by the pronunciation of the word prion.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): ruǎn (ruan³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄖㄨㄢˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): jyun² / gun²

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: ruǎn
    • Zhuyin: ㄖㄨㄢˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: ruǎn
    • Wade–Giles: juan³
    • Yale: rwǎn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: roan
    • Palladius: жуань (žuanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ʐu̯än²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: jyun² / gun²
    • Yale: yún / gún
    • Cantonese Pinyin: jyn² / gun²
    • Guangdong Romanization: yun² / gun²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jyːn³⁵/, /kuːn³⁵/

Definitions

朊

1. (biochemistry, obsolete) protein

   Synonym: 蛋白質／蛋白质 (dànbáizhì)

2. (biochemistry, in compounds) prion

   Synonyms: 朊病毒 (ruǎnbìngdú), 朊毒體／朊毒体 (ruǎndútǐ)