被

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

被 (Kangxi radical 145, 衣+5, 10 strokes, cangjie input 中木竹水 (LDHE), four-corner 3424₇, composition ⿰衤皮)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1115, character 10
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 34222
• Dae Jaweon: page 1580, character 26
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3085, character 11
• Unihan data for U+88AB

Chinese

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *bralʔ, *brals) : semantic 衣 (“clothing”) + phonetic 皮 (OC *bral).

Etymology

Cognate with 披 (OC *pʰral, *pʰralʔ). The meaning of passive marker is an extension of "to wear; to be covered by something".

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

被

1. bedding; quilt; blanket (Classifier: 床 m; 張／张 c; 領／领 mn)

   被子  ―  bèizi  ―  quilt

   被褥  ―  bèirù  ―  bedding, bedclothes

   墊被／垫被  ―  diànbèi  ―  mattress

   • 2021, “記憶棉 [Pillow Talk]”, 林寶 [Jackson Lam] (lyrics), 徐浩 [Terry Chui] (music)‎performed by 張天賦 [MC]:

     人抱著一張被　在記憶棉內想起你 [Literary Cantonese, trad.]
     人抱着一张被　在记忆棉内想起你 [Literary Cantonese, simp.]

     jan⁴ pou⁵ zoek⁶ jat¹ zoeng¹ pei⁵, zoi⁶ gei³ jik¹ min⁴ noi⁶ soeng² hei² nei⁵

     Hugging on a blanket, I thought of you in the memory foam

Synonyms

• (quilt):

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

被

1. ^† to cover
2. ^† to suffer; to sustain (loss, misfortune, etc.)
3. by

   我被蚊子咬了。  ―  Wǒ bèi wénzi yǎo le.  ―  I got bitten by mosquitoes.

4. Used before a verb to indicate passive voice, often with a negative connotation.

   我的錶被偷了。／我的表被偷了。  ―  Wǒ de biǎo bèi tōu le.  ―  My watch has been stolen.

   我們的汽車尾巴被撞壞了。 [MSC, trad.]
   我们的汽车尾巴被撞坏了。 [MSC, simp.]

   Wǒmen de qìchē wěiba bèi zhuànghuài le.

   The rear end of our car was smashed.

5. (neologism) passively; under duress; in a forged manner; etc.

   被自殺／被自杀  ―  bèi zìshā  ―  to "be suicided"; to be killed by the authorities who then pass one's death off as suicide

   被就業／被就业  ―  bèi jiùyè  ―  to "be achieved employment"; to be falsely recorded as employed (for the purpose of falsifying employment data)

   被吸菸／被吸烟  ―  bèi xīyān  ―  to smoke secondhand

   被嫖娼  ―  bèi piáochāng  ―  to be falsely accused of visiting a prostitute

6. a surname.

Usage notes

• In a passive-voice sentence, 被 is placed after the subject and before the doer of the action. The doer of the action is placed before the verb or can be omitted.
• As a neologism, by affixing 被 to a verb or verb phrase that is rarely used in the passive sense (e.g. an intransitive verb), a deliberate awkwardness is constructed to call to the absurdity of the situation being referred to.

Synonyms

Descendants

Others:

• → Vietnamese: phải (“must; correct; right side”)

Pronunciation 3

Definitions

被

1. ^† Alternative form of 披 (“to cover oneself; to scatter”)

Pronunciation 4

Definitions

被

1. Alternative form of 髲 (bì, “wig”)
2. Alternative form of 彼 (bǐ, “that”)

Pronunciation 5

Definitions

被

1. Alternative form of 帔

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: び (bi)
• Kan-on: ひ (hi, Jōyō)
• Kun: おおう (ōu, 被う); かずく (kazuku, 被く); かずかる (kazukaru, 被かる); かずける (kazukeru, 被ける); かがふる (kagafuru, 被る); かぶる (kaburu, 被る); かぶす (kabusu, 被す); かぶさる (kabusaru, 被さる); かぶせる (kabuseru, 被せる); かむる (kamuru, 被る); こうぶる (kōburu, 被る); こうむる (kōmuru, 被る, Jōyō); きせる (kiseru, 被せる); ふすま (fusuma, 被)
• Nanori: ぎぬ (ginu)

Compounds

Etymology 1

From Middle Chinese 被 (bje^H, “to cover”), from the term's use in Chinese as a passive marker.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Prefix

被(ひ) • (hi-) 

1. -ed, -ee (marks the passive recipient of an action)

   被(ひ)傭者(ようしゃ)

   hiyōsha

   employee

   被(ひ)験者(けんしゃ)

   hikensha

   examinee

   被(ひ)減数(げんすう)

   higensū

   minuend (number which is reduced)

   被(ひ)保護国(ほごこく)

   hihogokoku

   protectorate (protected nation)

Etymology 2

The 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 被う (ōu, “to cover”).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) おおい (Heiban – )
• (Tokyo) おおい​ (Odaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

被(おおい) • (ōi) ^{←おほい,おほひ (ofoi, ofofi)?}

1. a covering
2. the act of covering something
3. (by extension) a protector or patron

References

Korean

Hanja

被 • (pi) (hangeul 피, revised pi, McCune–Reischauer p'i, Yale phi)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

被: Hán Nôm readings: bị, bệ, bỡ, bự, bợ

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.