悬雍垂 (xuán yōng chuí) — uvula | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Anatomy term for the 'uvula' — the small fleshy structure hanging at the back of the soft palate. HSK 7 vocabulary; you'll only meet it in medical, phonetic, or anatomy contexts.

noun

uvula

Examples

悬雍垂。
Yī shēng shuō wǒ de xuán yōng chuí yǒu diǎn fā yán.
The doctor said my uvula is slightly inflamed.
，悬雍垂。
Zuò zhè ge fā yīn liàn xí shí, nǐ kě yǐ shì zhe tái qǐ xuán yōng chuí.
When doing this pronunciation exercise, you can try to raise your uvula.
悬雍垂，。
Gǎn mào shí wǒ de xuán yōng chuí zhǒng le, hē shuǐ dōu téng.
When I had a cold, my uvula swelled up, and even drinking water hurt.

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.

悬雍hanging and swollen

悬xuánhanging雍yōngswollen

联合Side by side

垂chuípendant

A 垂, pendant, that is 悬, hanging, and 雍, swollen, names the uvula.

Characters in this word

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 懸; 悬 is its simplified writing.

縣心懸

Meaning part形符xíngfú

心心xīnheart

Sound part声符shēngfú

縣

縣xiàn懸xuán

Same sound today

The traditional form 懸 adds 心, “heart,” to the older form 縣, which gave the sound. The simplified 悬 is a later abbreviation.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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

𠂹𠂹𠂹
土土tǔ

垂 combines 𠂹 and 土 to draw flowers hanging down from a plant.

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