Translingual

Han character

被 (radical 145 衣+5, 11 strokes, cangjie input 中木竹水 (LDHE), four-corner 3424₇, composition ⿰衤皮)

References

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

Chinese

Glyph origin

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

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

被

1. bedding; quilt; blanket   (Classifier: 張／张)
   • 被子  ―  bèizi  ―  quilt
   • 被褥  ―  bèirù  ―  bedding, bedclothes
   • 墊被 / 垫被  ―  diànbèi  ―  mattress
2. ^† to cover

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

被

1. ^† to suffer; to sustain (loss, misfortune, etc.)
2. by
   • 我被蚊子咬了。  ―  Wǒ bèi wénzi yǎo le.  ―  I got bitten by mosquitoes.
3. Used before a verb to indicate passive-voice.
   • 我的錶被偷了。 / 我的表被偷了。  ―  Wǒ de biǎo bèi tōu le.  ―  My watch has been stolen.
4. 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.
• A passive-voice sentence with 被 is negated with 沒有／没有 (méiyǒu).

  我們沒有被告知他從哪裡來。 [MSC, trad.]

  我们没有被告知他从哪里来。 [MSC, simp.]

  Wǒmen méiyǒu bèi gàozhī tā cóng nǎlǐ lái. [Pinyin]

  We weren't told where he came from.

Synonyms

Pronunciation 3

Definitions

被

1. Alternative form of 披 (pī, “to cover oneself”).

Pronunciation 4

Definitions

被

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

Pronunciation 5

Definitions

被

1. Alternative form of 帔.

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

Readings

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

• On'yomi: Kan'on
• IPA^(key): [çi]

Prefix

被 ‎(hiragana ひ, romaji hi-)

1. -ee: marks the passive recipient of an action, as the -ee in English employee

   被 (ひ)害者 (がいしゃ)

   higaisha

   victim (one who is harmed)

Etymology 2

The 連用形 ‎(ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 被う ‎(ōu, “to cover”).^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) おおい [òóí] (Heiban - [0])^[2]
• (Tokyo) おおい​ [òóíꜜ] (Odaka - [3])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [o̞ːi]

Noun

被 ‎(hiragana おおい, romaji ōi, historical hiragana おほい)

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

References

1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 1 2 3 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9

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 (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}}.