How to Write 胠 (qū) — Meaning “Flank; to open from the side”

Imagine you are going (去) to touch someone's side (月, like the moon-shaped flank). The right part 去 sounds like "key" in English, so picture a key opening a chest from the side, matching the meaning "to open from the side." This links both the visual and sound clues.

The left 月 radical should be narrow and tall, taking up about one-third of the character width. The right 去 part has five strokes: first a horizontal line, then vertical, then another horizontal, followed by a vertical-hook-and-turn stroke, and finally a short leftward flick. A common mistake is making the 月 too wide or mixing up the order of strokes in 去.

胠 has 月 on the left and 去 on the right, meaning flank or side-opening. 朊 has 月 and 元 (yuan), a rare character for certain chemical terms like "protein." 朋 is two 月 side by side, meaning friend or group. Visually, 胠 has a 去 right side, 朊 has 元 (two horizontal strokes at top), and 朋 is two identical 月 halves.

胠 is very rare in daily speech and appears mainly in classical or literary expressions. For example, 胠箧 (qū qiè) means "to break open a chest to steal" and comes from an old story in the Zhuangzi. You might also see it in medical terms like 胠腋 (armpit) or 胠肢 (limbs), but it is not common in everyday conversation.

Common words containing 胠 include: 胠箧 (qū qiè) — To break open a chest (to steal); 胠肢 (qū zhī) — Limbs; 胠腋 (qū yè) — Armpit area.