大袋鼠 (dà dài shǔ) — kangaroo

Definition

noun
kangaroo
Measure word · 只

Examples

  • 大袋鼠。
    Wǒ zài ào dà lì yà de cǎo yuán shàng kàn dào yì zhī dà dài shǔ zài tiào.
    I saw a kangaroo jumping on the grassland in Australia.
  • 大袋鼠。
    dà dài shǔ Shì ào dà lì yà zuì yǒu míng de dòng wù.
    Kangaroos are Australia's most famous animals.
  • 大袋鼠，。
    Zhè zhǒng dà dài shǔ de tǐ xíng fēi cháng dà, kě yǐ tiào dé hěn yuǎn.
    This kind of kangaroo is very large and can jump very far.

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dàlarge
袋鼠pouch-bearing kangaroo
袋dàipouch鼠shǔrat/mouse
偏正Modifier + head

大 adds 'large', and 袋 and 鼠 together name the pouch-bearing kangaroo.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
衣衣yīclothes
Sound part声符shēngfú
代
代dài袋dài
Same sound today

袋 combines 衣 (clothes) with 代, where 衣 gives the meaning and 代 gives the sound.

Open 袋 →

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

The shape of 鼠 pictures a rat: the upper part looks like an open mouth with teeth, while the lower part shows two feet on the left and a tail on the right.

Open 鼠 →

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