疾 jí sickness
sickness; illness; disease
How it came to be
A person with an arrow going into them. Illness arrives the way an arrow does, suddenly and from outside, which is also why the same character means fast.
用法
- Bound, literary-register word for illness - 疾病 (jíbìng) "disease" sounds more formal/written than plain 病.
- 残疾 (cánjí) "disabled/disability" is the standard neutral term used in official and medical contexts.
- Also carries a separate literary sense of "fast", as in 疾走 (jízǒu) "to walk swiftly", though this is rare outside classical-flavored writing.
- Doesn't stand alone as a verb meaning "to be sick" - for that use 生病 or 病了.