症 and 癥

[rezaf]

What's the difference between them and which one is the right traditional character for words like 癌症,病症，症狀,...

[skylee]

I would say 病症 (illness) and 病徵(徵 as in 徵兆 / 徵候）(symptom). But it looks like 病癥 is also acceptable according to the Taiwan MOE Dictionary.

This thread is relevant -> Traditional form of 症

PS - 症 and 徵are not homophones in Cantonese, so there is no confusion in Cantonese. But both 症狀 and 病徵 mean symptom.

[rezaf]

Thanks. As you read fantizi, is 癥 ever used outside of dictionaries?

[skylee]

It is part of the word 癥結, so yes. For "symptom", I think the illness radical is not necessary.

[hbuchtel]

Rezaf, have you encountered "癥瘕积聚“ in your studies?

I'm wondering if you are asking about how the character 癥 is used in modern Chinese by people who use traditional characters (ie Taiwan, HK, etc), or if you are asking how the character was used in ancient Chinese texts?

Henry

[rezaf]

Both. Last year I started to learn the traditional script by checking the characters on my pleco dictionary which clearly lists 癥and 證 as traditional characters and 症 as the simplified version for them. It made me believe that 症 was a simplified character until recently when I was reading a Taiwanese TCM magazine I noticed that 症 was used in all the words that I have mentioned above. This made me a little but confused.

[Kenny同志]

I am sure 证 and 症 are two different terms but without a TCM dictionary at hand, I can’t tell the exact differences.

[rezaf]

I know. That's why it makes it more confusing but anyway I am more concerned about 症 and 癥. If you guys have read the original ancient books, have you ever seen 症 in them?

Anyway probably the dictionary has problems.

[hbuchtel]

It is an interesting question...

Here is some reading on the subject.

http://www.cttcm.com.cn/mcsyyjd9.htm

医学名词“证”“症”“征”规范使用的探讨

朱建平

（中国中医研究院 北京 100700）

二、症（癥）

现在的“症”字有两个读音：症状之“症”读zhèng；症瘕之“症”读zhēng。

症（zhèng）：指疾病的表现。《说文解字》未见此字，在古代常用“證”字来表达。如《辞源》释为：“病徵。古皆作‘證’。” [15]《辞海》释为：“疾病的症候情况。如重症；对症下药。” [16]

“症”是症状的简称。“症状”，《辞海》释为：“病人患病时所发生的异常感觉。如患感冒时的发热、喉痛、头痛、食欲减退等。广义的还包括‘体征’。” [17]

《多兰医学词典》载“symptom”一词，释为：“any subjective evidence of disease or of a patient’s condition, i.e., such evidence as perceived by the patient; a noticeable change in p patient’s condition indicative of some bodily or mental state. ” [18] （病人的主观感觉。主观感觉的变化，提示患者某些身心状况的改变。）Symptom汉译为“症状”。

另外，“症”（zhēng）是“癥”简化规范字。

“癥”：《辞源》释：“腹中结块之病。旧题汉·华佗《华氏中藏经》上《积聚癥瘕杂虫论》：‘癥有劳、气、冷、热、虚、实、风、湿、食、药、思、忧之十二名也。’” [19] 并有“癥瘕”一词，《辞源》释：“癥瘕：腹中结块的病，坚者为癥，成物形者为瘕。……隋·巢元方《诸病源候论》十九有《癥瘕》。” 由于“癥”简化成“症”，于是“癥瘕”便成了“症瘕”。[20]

所谓“癥”，是腹内有坚硬结块的疾患，是有徵可稽的疾病，其造字从疒从徵，非常科学。如果“徵”简化成“征”，那么“癥”应该简化成“”，而不是“症”。“癥”简化为“症”，真是匪夷所思，不知当时简化的依据是什么？

Henry

[rezaf]

Thanks it explains everything. Now I know when I should use which one.

[o7o]

癥 has a separate meaning, as the post above states. While some dictionaries seem to give 癥 as the traditional form of 症, the latter is always used in Taiwan - for example, when I type bingzheng or zhengzhuang my PC and iPhone set for Taiwanese Chinese only offer 症 as an option. Perhaps it's a similar situation to 癡 and 痴.

[skylee]

癡 is more commonly used than 癥 in my opinion.

Since we are discussing these characters ... I am proofreading a Chinese report and to my dismay have spotted in it the character 徴, which is missing the horizontal stroke above 王/壬, in the word 特徵. Why do such fonts exist? (I expect that the explanation would be somehow the character does exist and used to be the same as, or even the original form of, the character that I regard as correct.) It is very frustrating to have to check and correct such typos in a long report.

[Glenn]

It's the Japanese standard form. Although I admit it's exceedingly strange that it would show up in a typed Chinese text. I'm not sure how common it is in handwriting/calligraphy.

[Edit] Actually, maybe this link would be better: 徴. If you go to the bottom it has a character dictionary with both forms, the second (traditional Chinese form) described as "for use in names", while the top (Japanese form) says it's a character learned in middle/junior high school.