大麦 (dà mài) — barley | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

barley

Measure word · 粒

大麦。
Nóng mín zài tián lǐ zhǒng le hěn duō dà mài.
The farmers planted a lot of barley in the fields.
大麦。
dà mài Kě yǐ yòng lái zuò pí jiǔ.
Barley can be used to make beer.
大麦。
Zhè zhǒng miàn bāo shì yòng dà mài zuò de.
This type of bread is made from barley.

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.

The 大 meaning large and 麦 meaning grain combine to name barley.

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.

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 麥; 麦 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

夊夊suīfootprint pointing down; to walk slowly

Sound part声符shēngfú

來

來lái麥mài

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

For 麦, the traditional form 麥 pairs 來, which gives the sound and once meant wheat, with 夊, a footprint pointing down for slow walking.

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