小商贩 (xiǎo shāng fàn) — small vendor, peddler, street seller

Definition

noun
small vendorpeddlerstreet seller
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 小商贩。
    Nà ge xiǎo shāng fàn měi tiān zài jiē jiǎo mài shuǐ guǒ.
    That vendor sells fruit at the street corner every day.
  • 小商贩。
    Hěn duō xiǎo shāng fàn kào bǎi tān wéi chí shēng jì.
    Many small vendors make a living by setting up stalls.
  • 小商贩。
    Zhèng fǔ wèi xiǎo shāng fàn tí gōng le gù dìng de jīng yíng chǎng suǒ.
    The government provided fixed business locations for small vendors.

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.

小xiǎosmall
商贩vendor
商shāngmerchant贩fànpeddler
联合Side by side

小 means small, 商 is a merchant, and 贩 is a peddler, together a small vendor.

Characters in this word

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

  • 八八bāto divide; to separate
  • 丨丨gǔnsmall object

The shape of 小 comes from three small dots, later elongated into its strokes; the apparent parts 八 and 丨 are a later way of seeing it.

Open 小 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 商 →

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 販; 贩 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
貝貝bèicowry
Sound part声符shēngfú
反
反fǎn販fàn
Same sound today

The traditional form 販 combines 貝, a cowry shell, with 反 as a sound part; the simplified 贩 is a shorthand and its right side is not a historical component.

Open 贩 →

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