山脚下 (shān jiǎo xià) — foot of a mountain | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

foot of a mountain

Examples

山脚下。
Tā men zhù zài shān jiǎo xià.
They live at the foot of the mountain.
山脚下。
shān jiǎo xià Yǒu yí zuò xiǎo cūn zhuāng.
There is a small village at the foot of the mountain.
山脚下。
Pá dào shān dǐng jiù néng kàn jiàn shān jiǎo xià de fēng jǐng.
When you climb to the mountaintop, you can see the scenery at the foot of the mountain.

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.

山脚mountain foot

山shānmountain脚jiǎofoot

偏正Modifier + head

山脚 is the foot or base of a mountain, and 下 places something beneath it.

Characters in this word

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

山 shows three mountain peaks side by side.

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 腳; 脚 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

⺼Written in full as肉ròumeat, body

Sound part声符shēngfú

卻

卻què腳jiǎo

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 腳 uses ⺼ for a body part and 卻 for the sound; the simplified 脚 is a later shorthand.

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

下 is drawn as a short horizontal line below a long curved line.

Appears in

Geography & Landforms

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