被 - Dong Chinese dictionary

bèi

quilt, cover

Phonosemantic compound. 衤 represents the meaning and 皮 represents the sound.

Components

衤 Meaning component

yī

clothes

衤 is a component form of 衣.

皮 Sound component

pí

skin

被 and 皮 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.被 /*m-pʰ(r)ajʔ/, /*m-pʰ(r)ajʔ-s/, /*mə-pʰ(r)aj/, /*pʰ(r)aj-s/
皮 /*m-[p](r)aj/

Evolution

Bronze script

Late Warring States (~250 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

被

bèi

passive indicator 'by'; bedding; quilt; by; (indicates passive-voice clauses); (literary) to cover; to meet with; (coll.) (since c. 2009) used before a verb that does not accurately represent what actually happened, to describe with black humor how sb or sth was dealt with by the authorities (as in 被自殺|被自杀[bèizìshā])

Most common words with 被

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	被	by
	被告	defendant
	被捕	to be arrested
	被迫	to be compelled
	被动	passive

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese	Middle Chinese	Pinyin	Gloss
*m-pʰ(r)ajʔ	bjeX	bèi	coverlet
*m-pʰ(r)ajʔ-s	bjeH	bèi	cover (v.)
*mə-pʰ(r)aj	phje	pī	cover oneself with
*pʰ(r)aj-s	phjeH	pì	cloak