大炮 (dà pào) — (noun) artillery, cannon; (noun, colloquial) bi…

Definition

Two senses: literally a cannon/artillery (measure word 门), and colloquially a "big talker" — someone who boasts or makes empty claims.

noun

artillerycannon(noun, colloquial) big talkerone who talks big

Measure word · 门

大炮。
Zhàn chǎng shàng de dà pào wēi lì hěn dà.
The artillery on the battlefield is very powerful.
，大炮。
Tā zǒng shuō néng zhuàn yì bǎi wàn, qí shí shì gè dà pào.
He always says he can make a million, but he's actually a big talker.
大炮。
Zhè zhī jūn duì pèi bèi le zuì xīn shì de dà pào.
This army is equipped with the latest artillery.

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 means big and 炮 means cannon, so it names a large gun or a loud talker.

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.

火包炮

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

包

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

炮 combines 火 and 包; 包 supplies the sound.

Appears in