尊容 (zūn róng) — (formal, honorific) your esteemed appearance; one's countenance; (colloquial, ironic) one's ugly face; mug

Definition

Literally 'honorable face' — used as a polite/formal word for someone's appearance, but in modern spoken use it's almost always sarcastic, meaning 'that ugly face of yours'. The polite reading is rare; the mocking one is dominant.

noun
(formal, honorific) your esteemed appearanceone's countenance(colloquial, ironic) one's ugly facemug
Measure word · 张

Examples

  • 尊容。
    Tā nà fù zūn róng shí zài bù zěn me yàng.
    That look of his really isn't great.
  • ，尊容。
    Zài fó jiào yì shù zhōng, fó tuó de zūn róng xiǎn de shí fēn zhuāng yán.
    In Buddhist art, the venerable face of the Buddha appears very solemn.
  • 尊容。
    Qǐng yǔn xǔ wǒ zàn měi nín de zūn róng.
    Please allow me to praise your appearance.

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.

尊zūnhonorific
容róngappearance

尊 adds honorific respect, and 容 denotes the face or appearance.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The shape combines 寸 (hand) and 酋 (wine), showing a hand offering a wine vessel to express respect; some forms show two hands instead.

Open 尊 →

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
宀宀mián
Sound part声符shēngfú
公
公gōng容róng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In 容, the 宀 (roof) part points to holding or containing, and 公 gives the sound.

Open 容 →

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