药

See also: 藥 and 葯

药 U+836F, 药 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-836F ← 荮 [U+836E] CJK Unified Ideographs 荰 → [U+8370]

Translingual

Stroke order

Traditional	藥
Shinjitai	薬
Simplified	药

Han character

药 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+6, 9 strokes, cangjie input 廿女一戈 (TVMI), four-corner 4412₇, composition ⿱艹约)

Related characters

• 藥 (Orthodox traditional form of 药)
• 葯 (Originally listed as a simplified form of 藥 in 1935, also a variant form of 藥 in modern Taiwan)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 1031, character 38
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3212, character 13
• Unihan data for U+836F

Chinese

Etymology 1

Glyph origin

Simplified from 藥, which was originally simplified as 葯 / 药 by the Republic of China (Kuomintang government) in 1935 and by the People's Republic of China in 1956 before being simplified to its present form.

Definitions

For pronunciation and definitions of 药 – see 藥 (“medicine; drug; pharmaceutical; substance used for a particular purpose; etc.”). (This character is the simplified form of 藥).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Etymology 2

Glyph origin

Simplified from 葯 (約 → 约) (original sense unrelated to 藥), based on simplification of its radical component.

Definitions

For pronunciation and definitions of 药 – see 葯 (“orris root; etc.”). (This character is the simplified form of 葯).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Usage notes

In mainland China, 藥 / 药, rather than 葯 / 药 is listed officially as the traditional form of 药.