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十四行诗 (shí sì háng shī) — sonnet (a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme)

Definition

A transliterated loanword for 'sonnet' — a fixed European 14-line poetic form. Use 首诗 as the classifier when counting, same as for 诗.

noun
sonnet (a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme)

Examples

  • 十四行诗。
    Shā shì bǐ yà de shí sì háng shī fēi cháng yǒu míng.
    Shakespeare's sonnets are very famous.
  • 十四行诗。
    Lǎo shī ràng wǒ men fēn xī zhè shǒu shí sì háng shī de yùn lǜ.
    The teacher asked us to analyze the rhyme of this sonnet.
  • 十四行诗。
    Tā huā le yí gè yuè xiě le yì shǒu shí sì háng shī.
    He spent a month writing a sonnet.

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 form 四 was drawn as a nose breathing out. It later came to be used for the word four.

Open 四 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 彳彳chì
  • 亍亍chù

The shape of 行 originally showed a street intersection, even on both sides. Later it became uneven, with 彳 on the left and 亍 on the right.

Open 行 →

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 詩; 诗 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
言言yánspeech
Sound part声符shēngfú
寺
寺sì詩shī
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 詩 combines 言 (speech) with 寺 as a sound part, because poetry is a kind of speech; the simplified 诗 is a later abbreviation.

Open 诗 →
Appears in
Literature & Poetry

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