战祸 (zhàn huò) — disasters of war; war calamities | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

disasters of warwar calamities

Examples

战祸。
Zhè chǎng zhàn huò ràng wú shù jiā tíng liú lí shī suǒ.
This war calamity left countless families homeless.
战祸。
Lì shǐ shū shàng jì zǎi le nà cì zhàn huò de cǎn zhuàng.
The history books record the horrors of that war disaster.
，战祸。
Rén men kě wàng hé píng, bú yuàn zài jīng lì zhàn huò.
People long for peace and don't want to experience war calamities again.

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.

祸huòdisaster

战, meaning war, narrows 祸, meaning disaster, to calamities brought about by fighting.

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.

占戈战

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

占

占zhàn战zhàn

Same sound today

战 pairs 占, which gives its sound, with 戈, a weapon.

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 禍; 祸 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

示示shìsacrifice

Sound part声符shēngfú

咼

咼wāi禍huò

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

The simplified 祸 is an abbreviation of traditional 禍, which pairs 示 (sacrifice) with 咼 to show pronunciation.

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