山腰 (shān yāo) — midway up a mountain, mountainside (the middle section of a slope)

Definition

Literally 'mountain waist' — the middle part of a mountain slope, between the foot (山脚) and the summit (山顶).

noun
midway up a mountainmountainside (the middle section of a slope)

Examples

  • 山腰。
    Wǒ men pá dào shān yāo jiù lèi le.
    We got tired when we climbed to the mountainside.
  • 山腰。
    shān yāo Shàng yǒu yí piàn zhú lín.
    There is a bamboo grove midway up the mountain.
  • 山腰。
    Cūn zi zài shān yāo xià miàn.
    The village is below the mountainside.

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shānmountain
腰yāowaist

山 means mountain and 腰 means waist, so 山腰 pictures the middle part of a mountain slope.

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.

Open 山 →

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
⺼Written in full as肉ròuflesh
Sound part声符shēngfú
要
要yào腰yāo
Same sound today

The left part ⺼ is flesh; the right part 要 gives the sound.

Open 腰 →

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