大白天 (dà bái tiān) — broad daylight; daytime | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Literally 'big white day' — emphasizes the middle of the day, when everything is visible and exposed. Usually appears in contexts like 大白天 + Verb (stealing, saying something) to highlight how brazen the action is.

noun

broad daylightdaytime

Examples

大白天，。
Tā jū rán zài dà bái tiān tōu dōng xi, dǎn zi tài dà le.
He actually stole things in broad daylight, so bold.
大白天。
dà bái tiān De jiē shàng yí gè rén yě méi yǒu.
In broad daylight, there wasn't a single person on the street.
大白天，？
Nǐ dà bái tiān shuō zhè zhǒng huà, bú pà bèi rén tīng jiàn ma?
You say such things in broad daylight, aren't you afraid of being heard?

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.

白天daytime

白báiwhite天tiānday

偏正Modifier + head

大 'big' adds emphasis to 白天 'daytime', giving the sense of full broad daylight.

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.

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

白 is thought to picture either an acorn or a human head.

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

丁

丁dīng天tiān

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

The shape comes from a frontal standing man 大 with a head; 天 pairs 大 with 丁 for sound.

Appears in

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