人像 (rén xiàng) — portrait, image (of a person) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

portraitimage (of a person)

Measure word · 张

Examples

人像。
Tā gěi wǒ pāi le yì zhāng rén xiàng.
He took a portrait of me.
人像。
Měi shù guǎn lǐ zhǎn chū le hěn duō gǔ dài rén xiàng.
The museum is exhibiting many ancient portraits.
人像。
Hù zhào shàng yào yòng jìn qī de rén xiàng.
A recent portrait photo is required for the passport.

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.

人 (person) and 像 (image) together mean a portrait or image of a person.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

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

亻象像

Meaning part形符xíngfú

亻Written in full as人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

象

Same sound today

像 uses 亻, the side form of 人 (person), with 象 giving the sound.

Appears in

Art & Fine Arts

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