手指甲 (shǒu zhǐ jia) — fingernail | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

fingernail

Measure word · 个

Examples

手指甲，。
Wǒ de shǒu zhǐ jia tài cháng le, xū yào jiǎn yi jiǎn.
My fingernails are too long; I need to trim them.
。
Tā xǐ huan bǎ shǒu zhǐ jia tú chéng hóng sè.
She likes to paint her fingernails red.
，。
Nǐ yào jīng cháng xǐ shǒu zhǐ jia, bǎo chí wèi shēng.
You should wash your fingernails often to keep them clean.

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.

手指finger

手shǒuhand指zhǐfinger

偏正Modifier + head

手指 finger and 甲 nail together give the nail of a finger.

Characters in this word

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

手 draws a five-fingered human hand: the top line is a bent middle finger, and the horizontal lines show the other four fingers.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

扌旨指

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒu

Sound part声符shēngfú

旨

旨zhǐ指zhǐ

Same sound today

The left part 扌 is the hand form 手. The right part 旨 gives the sound.

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

甲 is drawn as a hard protective shell, carapace, or scales of an animal, or as armor made of connected plates.

Appears in

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