十七秒 (shí qī miǎo) — seventeen seconds

Definition

noun
seventeen seconds

Examples

  • 十七秒。
    Bǐ sài zhī shèng zuì hòu shí qī miǎo le.
    The game only has seventeen seconds left.
  • 十七秒。
    Tā pǎo yì bǎi mǐ yòng le shí qī miǎo.
    He ran the 100 meters in seventeen seconds.
  • 十七秒，。
    Qǐng děng dài shí qī miǎo, mǎ shàng jiù hǎo.
    Please wait seventeen seconds, it'll be ready soon.

Origin

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →

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

The shape of 七 comes from two crossing lines: the top line runs left to right, and the next line goes down and across.

Open 七 →

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
禾禾hécereal; grain
Sound part声符shēngfú
少
少shǎo秒miǎo
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 秒 pairs 禾, a cereal or grain plant, with 少 giving the sound.

Open 秒 →

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