士力架 (shì lì jià) — Snickers (candy bar)

Definition

noun

Snickers (candy bar)

Measure word · 根

，士力架。
Wǒ è le, xiǎng chī yí kuài shì lì jià.
I'm hungry, I want to eat a Snickers.
士力架。
shì lì jià Shì yì zhǒng hěn shòu huān yíng de qiǎo kè lì bàng.
Snickers is a very popular chocolate bar.
士力架。
Nǐ qù biàn lì diàn bāng wǒ mǎi yí gè shì lì jià ba.
Go to the convenience store and buy me a Snickers.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The characters 士力架 spell the brand name Snickers and carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

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

The shape 士 comes from a simple drawing of a war axe. The character later came to mean a soldier, officer, or intellectual.

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

力 is drawn as either an arm bending out from the side of the body or a wooden plough.

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

加木架

Meaning part形符xíngfú

木木mùtree, wood

Sound part声符shēngfú

加

Same sound today

架 shows 木, meaning wood, with 加 giving the sound; it refers to a wooden prop.