叮当 (dīng dāng) — (onomatopoeia) ding-dong; jingling sound; (coll…

Definition

Onomatopoeia for the bright metallic jingle of bells or wind chimes. Colloquially also used to mean 'quarrel' when reduplicated with 起来 (e.g. 叮当起来).

onomatopoeia

ding-dongjingling sound(colloquial) quarrelargument

Easily confused

叮当。
Yuǎn chù chuán lái dīng dāng de líng shēng.
The sound of bells came from the distance.
叮当。
Fēng líng zài wēi fēng zhōng dīng dāng zuò xiǎng.
The wind chime jingled in the breeze.
叮当。
Tā men liǎ yīn wèi xiǎo shì yòu dīng dāng qǐ lái le.
The two of them started quarreling again over a trivial matter.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

拟声nǐshēngOnomatopoeia

The characters imitate a sound; their individual meanings play no part.

叮 and 当 do not carry meanings of their own here; the word imitates a jingling sound and can refer to a quarrel.

Sound-only characters

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

丁口叮

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

丁

Same sound today

叮 combines 口, the mouth, with 丁, which gives the sound.

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 當; 当 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

尚

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 當 combines 田 (field) with 尚; the evidence describes fields facing each other.