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哺乳 (bǔ rǔ) — to breastfeed, to nurse (a baby or young animal)

Definition

哺乳 specifically means breastfeeding — a mother feeding her baby or young with milk. Unlike 护理/看护 (caring for a sick person) or 哺育 (broader nurture/feed), it is strictly about nursing milk to offspring.

verb
to breastfeedto nurse (a baby or young animal)

Examples

  • 哺乳。
    Zhè wèi mā ma jiān chí bǔ rǔ le liù gè yuè.
    This mother insisted on breastfeeding for six months.
  • ，哺乳。
    Xiǎo xióng māo chū shēng hòu, mā ma huì bǔ rǔ tā men.
    After baby pandas are born, the mother will nurse them.
  • 哺乳。
    Yī shēng jiàn yì tā měi tiān bǔ rǔ sì cì.
    The doctor advised her to breastfeed four times a day.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

哺bǔfeed
乳rǔmilk

Feed and milk combine to mean breastfeed.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
甫
甫fǔ哺bǔ
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

哺 combines 口 (mouth) to show the meaning and 甫 to give the sound.

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

乳 originally drew a kneeling woman holding and breastfeeding a child, matching its meanings of breast and milk.

Open 乳 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Biology

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