手风琴 (shǒu fēng qín) — accordion | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

accordion

Measure word · 架

。
Tā xǐ huan lā shǒu fēng qín.
He likes to play the accordion.
手风琴。
Zhè jià shǒu fēng qín de shēng yīn fēi cháng hǎo tīng.
The sound of this accordion is very beautiful.
。
Wǒ duì shǒu fēng qín hěn gǎn xìng qù.
I am very interested in the accordion.

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.

风琴wind instrument

偏正Modifier + head

手 suggests hand-operated, 风 wind, and 琴 an instrument, together naming an accordion.

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.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú

珡珡qín

Sound part声符shēngfú

今

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

琴 pairs 珡, the part tied to its sense as a stringed instrument, with 今, which gives the sound.

Appears in