俯冲 (fǔ chōng) — to dive, to swoop down | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

verb

to diveto swoop down

Examples

俯冲。
Fēi jī cóng gāo kōng fǔ chōng xià lái.
The airplane dived from high altitude.
俯冲。
Nà zhī yīng tū rán fǔ chōng xiàng dì miàn.
That eagle suddenly swooped down to the ground.
俯冲。
Tā xiàng yì zhī niǎo yí yàng fǔ chōng jìn shuǐ lǐ.
He dived into the water like a bird.

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.

俯fǔbend down

俯 (bend down) + 冲 (dash) = to swoop downward.

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

勹勹bāoperson bending over

Sound part声符shēngfú

府

府fǔ俯fǔ

Same sound today

俯 uses 府 to show the sound fǔ and 勹 to show a person bending over; the modern left side comes from 勹.

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 衝; 冲 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 冲 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (冲, 冲动) it is 衝; in others (冲) it is 沖.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

重

重zhòng衝chōng

Same sound today

The traditional form 衝 shows 重 inside 行, with 行 as the meaning part and 重 as the sound part; the simplified 冲 is a later shorthand.

Appears in

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