吃荤 (chī hūn) — to eat meat or non-vegetarian food | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

吃荤 means 'to eat meat'; it is paired with 吃素 ('eat vegetarian / vegetarian food') in contrast. Use 吃肉 for the more literal 'eat meat'.

verb

to eat meat or non-vegetarian food

Examples

吃荤，。
Tā cóng xiǎo chī hūn, xiàn zài xiǎng gǎi chī sù.
He has eaten meat since childhood, but now he wants to switch to a vegetarian diet.
，吃荤，。
Wèi le jiàn kāng, tā jué dìng shǎo chī hūn, duō chī sù.
For his health, he decided to eat less meat and more vegetables.
，。
Cóng qù nián kāi shǐ, tā méi yǒu chī guò yí cì hūn.
Since last year, he hasn't eaten any meat even once.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

吃 means eat and 荤 means meat, so the word describes eating meat.

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.

口乞吃

Meaning part形符xíngfú

口口kǒumouth

Sound part声符shēngfú

乞

乞qǐ吃chī

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

吃 combines 口 (mouth) with 乞, which gives the sound; it originally wrote a word meaning to stutter.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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