功夫片 (gōng fu piàn) — kung fu movie, martial arts film

Definition

noun

kung fu moviemartial arts film

Measure word · 部

功夫片。
Wǒ tè bié xǐ huan kàn chéng lóng de gōng fu piàn.
I especially like watching Jackie Chan's kung fu movies.
功夫片。
Zhè bù gōng fu piàn de dòng zuò chǎng miàn hěn jīng cǎi.
The action scenes in this kung fu movie are exciting.
功夫片。
Hěn duō gōng fu piàn dōu jiǎng zhōng guó gōng fu de gù shi.
Many kung fu movies tell stories about Chinese kung fu.

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.

功夫kung fu

“功” and “夫” do not carry separate meanings here; together they name the martial art, and “片” means film.

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.

工力功

Meaning part形符xíngfú

力力lìstrength

Sound part声符shēngfú

工

Same sound today

功 puts 力 (strength) beside 工, which gives the sound gōng and means labour or work.

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

夫 originally drew a man. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write a pronoun, so the picture and the pronoun meaning are unrelated.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.