大姨 (dà yí) — mother's eldest sister (aunt)

Definition

Mother's eldest sister (maternal). The 大 prefix marks her as older than your mother, distinguishing her from younger maternal aunts 阿姨/小姨.

noun

mother's eldest sister (aunt)

Measure word · 个

大姨。
Wǒ dà yí zhù zài běi jīng.
My eldest maternal aunt lives in Beijing.
大姨。
Měi nián chūn jié wǒ dōu qù dà yí jiā bài nián.
Every Spring Festival I go to my eldest maternal aunt's house to pay New Year's visit.
大姨。
dà yí Zuò de cài zuì hǎo chī.
The food my eldest maternal aunt cooks is the best.

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.

姨yímaternal aunt

“大” marks the eldest sister, and “姨” gives the maternal aunt relation.

Characters in this word

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

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

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

女夷姨

Meaning part形符xíngfú

女女nǚwoman

Sound part声符shēngfú

夷

Same sound today

姨 combines 女 (woman) with 夷, which gives the sound. The 女 part marks it as a woman-related word.