大粪球 (dà fèn qiú) — dung ball (the ball of feces rolled by dung bee… | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A dung ball — the ball of animal feces that dung beetles roll. 大 here just emphasizes size; the compound refers to the whole ball, not a large one specifically.

noun

dung ball (the ball of feces rolled by dung beetles)

Measure word · 个

Examples

大粪球。
Zhè ge dà fèn qiú shì mǒu zhǒng jiǎ chóng gǔn chū lái de.
This dung ball was rolled out by a type of beetle.
大粪球。
Yán jiū rén yuán zài sēn lín lǐ fā xiàn le yí gè dà fèn qiú.
The researchers found a dung ball in the forest.
大粪球。
dà fèn qiú Zài zì rán jiè zhōng qǐ dào le fēn jiě fèn biàn de zuò yòng.
Dung balls play a role in decomposing feces in nature.

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.

大粪dung

大dàlarge粪fènfeces

偏正Modifier + head

大粪 names dung, and 球 is a ball, giving a ball of dung rolled by beetles.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 糞; 粪 is its simplified writing.

釆釆biàn
𠦒𠦒𠦒
廾廾gǒng

The traditional form 糞 is built from 釆, 𠦒, and 廾; the simplified 粪 is a later abbreviation.

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

玉玉yùjade

Sound part声符shēngfú

求

求qiú球qiú

Same sound today

球 is built from 玉, meaning jade, and 求, which gives the sound.

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