夜半 (yè bàn) — midnight; the middle of the night | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

midnightthe middle of the night

Examples

夜半，。
yè bàn Shí fēn, jiē shàng yǐ jīng méi yǒu rén le.
At midnight, there was already nobody on the streets.
夜半。
Tā cháng cháng gōng zuò dào yè bàn cái xiū xi.
He often works until midnight before resting.
夜半，。
yè bàn De zhōng shēng yì xiǎng, xīn de yì nián lái dào le.
As soon as the midnight bell rang, the new year arrived.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

夜, the night, reaches 半, its halfway point, meaning midnight.

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

夕夕xīmoon

Sound part声符shēngfú

亦

亦yì夜yè

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 夜 pairs 亦 as a sound part with 夕 as a moon part, for night. In the modern shape, the 亦 part is broken up and one stroke merges into 夕.

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

八八bāto divide
牛牛niúcow

The shape pairs 八 (to divide) with 牛 (cow), showing a cow cut into two halves.

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