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大雅 (dà yǎ) — (noun) refined elegance; good taste; sophistication; (noun) the 'Greater Odes' section of the Book of Songs (诗经)

Definition

A formal, literary word for refined elegance, used in writing to praise high culture or polished taste. Most commonly seen in the set phrase 不登大雅之堂 ("not fit for polite society").

noun
refined elegancegood tastesophisticationthe 'Greater Odes' section of the Book of Songs (诗经)

Examples

  • 大雅。
    Zhè ge shè jì hěn yǒu dà yǎ.
    This design has great elegance.
  • 《》大雅。
    《Shī jīng》 zhōng de dà yǎ shì zhōng guó zuì zǎo de gōng tíng shī gē.
    The Greater Odes in the Book of Songs are the earliest court poetry in China.
  • 大雅。
    Zhè zhǒng sú qi de biǎo yǎn shí zài bù dēng dà yǎ zhī táng.
    This vulgar performance is really not fit for polite society.

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dàgreat
雅yǎelegant

大 means great and 雅 means elegant, giving great refinement and good taste.

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
隹隹zhuīa short-tailed bird
Sound part声符shēngfú
牙
牙yá雅yǎ
Same sound today

雅 pairs 隹, a short-tailed bird, with 牙 as its sound part; the bird was a rook/crow, and the sense was extended to refined.

Open 雅 →
Appears in
Literature & Poetry

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