被

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

• 𫫢, 𭘴, 𰴅, 𮶮, 𭼤, 𭻭, 𬡩, 𬬣

• 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

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

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

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)‎^[1]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 [Jyutping]

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

• (quilt):

被

1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to cover
2. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) 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 (traditionally with a negative connotation, but also used generally under the influence of Westernization).

   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. [Pinyin]

   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

• 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.

Others:

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

被

1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of 披 (“to cover oneself; to scatter”)

被

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

被

1. alternative form of 帔

• “被”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[2], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• “被”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.
• “被”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.
• 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long], 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu], 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying], 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019) “被（～子）”, in 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 158.
• 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long], 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu], 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying], 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019) “被（～告）”, in 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 158.

(Jōyō kanji)

• 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)

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

• IPA^(key): [çi]

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)

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

• (Tokyo) おおい [òóí] (Heiban – [0])^[2]
• (Tokyo) おおい [òóíꜜ] (Odaka – [3])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [o̞ːi]

被(おおい) • (ōi) ^{←おほい (ofoi)?}

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

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}}.

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}}.