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乌鸦 (wū yā) — crow

Definition

noun
crow
Measure word · 只

Examples

  • 乌鸦，。
    Nà zhī wū yā zhàn zài shù zhī shàng, yí dòng bú dòng.
    That crow stood on the branch without moving.
  • 乌鸦。
    wū yā De jiào shēng zài qīng chén xiǎn de gé wài xiǎng liàng.
    The crow's call sounds especially loud in the early morning.
  • 乌鸦。
    Nóng mín men yòng dào cǎo rén qū gǎn tián lǐ de wū yā.
    Farmers use scarecrows to drive away crows in the fields.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

乌wūblack
鸦yācrow

乌 names black, 鸦 names crow; together they denote a crow.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 烏; 乌 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 烏 is a drawing of a bird. The simplified 乌 is a later abbreviation.

Open 乌 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 鴉; 鸦 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
鳥鳥niǎobird
Sound part声符shēngfú
牙
牙yá鴉yā
Same sound today

The traditional form 鴉 pairs 牙 as a sound part with 鳥, meaning bird; the simplified 鸦 is a later abbreviation and its parts are not the historical components.

Open 鸦 →
Appears in
Birds

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