大礼 (dà lǐ) — (noun) a grand ceremony, solemn ritual; (noun) a generous gift, large sum of money given as a gift

Definition

Literary/formal noun for a grand ceremony or a generous large gift. Often appears in fixed phrases like 行大礼 or 送大礼, rarely used in everyday spoken Chinese.

noun
a grand ceremonysolemn rituala generous gift, large sum of money given as a gift

Examples

  • 大礼。
    Tā men jǔ xíng le yì chǎng shèng dà de dà lǐ.
    They held a grand ceremony.
  • ，大礼。
    Tā jié hūn shí, qīn qi men sòng le hěn duō dà lǐ.
    When he got married, relatives gave many generous gifts.
  • 大礼。
    Gōng sī gěi měi wèi yuán gōng fā le xīn nián dà lǐ.
    The company gave each employee a generous New Year's gift.

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dàgrand
礼lǐceremony

It names a grand 大 礼, a solemn ceremony or generous gift.

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 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 禮; 礼 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
礻Written in full as示shìaltar
Sound part声符shēngfú
豊
豊lǐ禮lǐ
Same sound today

The traditional form 禮 pairs 礻 (altar) with 豊, a sound part, for performing rites at the altar; the simplified 礼 is a later shorthand.

Open 礼 →

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