肭
usually seen in: fur seal (腽肭); fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus Linnaeus) (腽肭兽); penis and testes of fur seal (used in TCM) (腽肭脐)
Closest English meanings
fat·fleshy
The Calligrapher — Lù Jiǎnzhī 陆柬之
Tang calligrapher and nephew of Yu Shinan; his running-script 'Essay on Literature' survives
Tang calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《文赋》. Tang dynasty
Cultural Story
肭 means fat and soft, surviving chiefly in 腽肭, an old medicinal term. The 腽肭脐, dried seal genitalia, was a famous tonic in imperial pharmacies, traded from northern coasts into court apothecaries. The 肭兽 seal itself was a curiosity from distant seas, recorded by scholars who never saw one alive.
Common words & phrases
- 腽肭 fat · fleshy (seal)
- 肭兽 seal (animal)
- 腽肭脐 seal penis (medicinal)
Read the story behind the character
Almost nobody meets 肭 outside dictionaries and traditional-medicine catalogs, where 腽肭脐 appears as an exotic ingredient on expensive supplement boxes. Students encountering 腽肭 in classical pharmacology texts marvel that a character this rare still circulates — a fossil word kept alive by the trade in remedies and the exam system's love of the obscure.
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