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佳肴 (jiā yáo) — fine food, delicacies, delicious dishes

Definition

Literary 'delicacies, fine dishes' — more formal and written than 美食 or 美味, and emphasizes dishes prepared for a meal (菜肴) rather than food as a category.

noun
fine fooddelicaciesdelicious dishes

Examples

  • 佳肴。
    Chú shī wèi wǒ men zhǔn bèi le yì zhuō jiā yáo.
    The chef prepared a table of fine dishes for us.
  • 佳肴。
    Zhè jiā jiǔ diàn de jiā yáo yuǎn jìn wén míng.
    The fine food at this hotel is famous far and wide.
  • 佳肴。
    Tā xǐ huan pǐn cháng gè dì de jiā yáo.
    He enjoys tasting delicacies from various places.

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.

佳jiāfine
肴yáodishes

佳 means fine or good, and 肴 names food or dishes.

Characters in this word

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
人人rénman; person
Sound part声符shēngfú
圭
圭guī佳jiā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

佳 combines 人 (person) with 圭, which is used for the sound guī.

Open 佳 →

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
⺼Written in full as肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
爻
爻yáo肴yáo
Same sound today

肴 uses 爻 for the sound yáo and ⺼ (肉) for meat, so the character shows meat dishes.

Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Food (General)

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