四五十 (sì wǔ shí) — between forty and fifty; forty or fifty (approximate number)

Definition

A casual spoken way to say 'about forty or fifty' — pairs with a measure word (∼个, ∼岁, ∼年) to give a rough number in that decade.

numeral
between forty and fiftyforty or fifty (approximate number)

Examples

  • 四五十。
    Tā kàn qǐ lái dà yuē sì wǔ shí suì.
    He looks about forty or fifty years old.
  • 四五十。
    Wǒ men bān yǒu sì wǔ shí gè xué shēng.
    Our class has between forty and fifty students.
  • 四五十。
    Zhè jiàn shì fā shēng zài sì wǔ shí nián qián.
    This happened about forty or fifty years ago.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

四五four or five
四sìfour五wǔfive
联合Side by side
十shíten

四 and 五 give 'four or five' before 十 'ten', yielding an approximate forty to fifty.

Characters in this word

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 →

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

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

Open 五 →

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 →

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