干巴 (gān bā) — dry and shriveled, dried out (of food or skin); dull, uninteresting, boring (figurative); thin, skinny (of a person)

Definition

Colloquial adjective for something dried out, shriveled, or dull. Often describes food, skin, or a boring person/story — more vivid and casual than 干燥.

adjective
dry and shriveleddried out (of food or skin)dulluninterestingboring (figurative)thinskinny (of a person)

Examples

  • ，干巴。
    Zhè ge miàn bāo fàng le liǎng tiān, yǐ jīng biàn de hěn gān bā le.
    This bread has been sitting for two days and has become very dry and stale.
  • 干巴，。
    Dōng tiān wǒ de shǒu zǒng shì hěn gān bā, xū yào duō cā hù shǒu shuāng.
    In winter my hands are always dry and chapped; I need to apply more hand cream.
  • 干巴，。
    Nà bù diàn yǐng tài gān bā le, kàn dào yí bàn wǒ jiù shuì zháo le.
    That movie was so boring — I fell asleep halfway through.

Origin

Derived word
构词法gòucífǎ
后缀hòuzhuìSuffix

A fixed syllable at the end that turns the word into a noun, a person, a place or the like.

干gāndry
巴bā

干 supplies the sense of dryness, and 巴 gives the familiar colloquial feel.

Characters in this word

The simplified 干 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (饼干, 干杯) it is 乾; in others (干, 干活儿) (干扰) it is 幹 or 干.

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 乾; 干 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
乙乙yǐ
Sound part声符shēngfú
倝
倝gàn乾gān
Same sound today
Open 干 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 巴 →

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