The kanji 肥 primarily conveys the meanings of "fertile," "fat," and "rich," especially concerning soil or land, and also figuratively relating to richness or abundance. It can also refer to fertilizer or manure, substances used to make the land more fertile.

・On-yomi (音読み): ヒ (hi) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): こえ (koe), こ(える) (ko(eru))

⚫︎ 肥料 Translation: Fertilizer; manure. ⚫︎ 肥沃な土地 Translation: Fertile land. ⚫︎ 肥満 Translation: Obesity; fatness.

The kanji 肥 is a 形声文字 (keisei moji), a phonetic-semantic compound. It combines the radical 月 (にくづき), meaning "flesh" or "body" (derived from the original shape of the moon or meat), with the phonetic component 巴, which contributes to the sound and hints at the meaning. Originally, 巴 depicted a type of farming implement or something round and full. Therefore, 肥 originally represented the idea of something plump or full, hence related to fatness. Over time, its meaning expanded to encompass the richness and abundance of fertile land because the fatness also implied the abundance in a broad sense.