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公鸡 (gōng jī) — rooster; cock

Definition

noun
roostercock
Measure word · 只

Examples

  • 公鸡。
    Měi tiān zǎo shàng gōng jī dōu huì jiào.
    Every morning the rooster crows.
  • 公鸡。
    Yé ye yǎng le sān zhī gōng jī.
    Grandpa raises three roosters.
  • 公鸡。
    Zhè zhī gōng jī de yǔ máo fēi cháng piào liang.
    This rooster's feathers are very beautiful.

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.

公gōngmale
鸡jīchicken

公 means male and 鸡 means chicken, so 公鸡 is a male chicken.

Characters in this word

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

One theory sees 公 as a picture of a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed jar.

Open 公 →

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 雞; 鸡 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
隹隹zhuīshort-tailed bird
Sound part声符shēngfú
奚
奚xī雞jī
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 雞 pairs 奚, which gives the sound, with 隹, a short-tailed bird. The simplified 鸡 is a later shorthand, and its right side is not the historical 奚.

Open 鸡 →
Appears in
Birds

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