工头 (gōng tóu) — foreman; overseer; supervisor (at a work site)

Definition

noun

foremanoverseersupervisor (at a work site)

Measure word · 个

工头。
Gōng dì shàng de gōng tóu měi tiān dōu hěn máng.
The foreman on the construction site is very busy every day.
工头。
Nà ge gōng tóu gào sù wǒ men jīn tiān yào jiā bān.
That foreman told us we need to work overtime today.
工头，。
Zhè ge gōng tóu duì gōng rén hěn hǎo, dà jiā dōu hěn xǐ huan tā.
This foreman treats the workers well; everyone likes him very much.

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.

work and leader combine to mean the person in charge of a crew.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

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 頭; 头 is its simplified writing.

豆頁頭

Meaning part形符xíngfú

頁頁yèhead

Sound part声符shēngfú

豆

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

The traditional form 頭 shows 頁, meaning head, beside 豆 as a sound component; the simplified 头 is a later shorthand.

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