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大扫除 (dà sǎo chú) — thorough cleaning (of a home or facility, especially before a major festival)

Definition

A 'big clean' — thorough cleaning of a home or facility, typically before a major festival like Spring Festival. Different from 打扫 (regular everyday tidying).

noun
thorough cleaning (of a home or facility, especially before a major festival)

Examples

  • ，大扫除，。
    Chūn jié qián, wǒ men jiā dōu huì jìn xíng dà sǎo chú, bǎ fáng zi dǎ sǎo dé gān gān jìng jìng.
    Before Spring Festival, our family always does a thorough cleaning, making the house spotless.
  • 大扫除。
    Zhè cì dà sǎo chú huā le zhěng zhěng liǎng tiān shí jiān.
    This thorough cleaning took a full two days.
  • 大扫除。
    Xué xiào zài shǔ jià qián ān pái le yí cì dà sǎo chú.
    The school arranged a thorough cleaning before summer break.

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.

大dàbig
扫除clean up
扫sǎosweep除chúremove
联合Coordinate

大 means big or thorough, while 扫 and 除 mean sweep and remove, giving a thorough clean-up.

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.

Open 大 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 掃; 扫 is its simplified writing.

The form 掃 draws a hand with a broomstick, the thing used for sweeping.

Open 扫 →

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
阜阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
余
余yú除chú
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

除 is built from 阜 and 余, with 余 giving the sound.

Open 除 →
Appears in
Cleaning & Chores

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