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探戈 (tàn gē) — tango (a dance/music genre)

Definition

noun
tango (a dance/music genre)

Examples

  • 探戈。
    Tā tiào le yì shǒu tàn gē.
    She danced a tango.
  • 探戈。
    Wǒ zuì xǐ huan de wǔ shì tàn gē.
    My favorite dance is the tango.
  • 探戈。
    Zhè shǒu tàn gē qǔ zi hěn yǒu míng.
    This tango tune is very famous.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

探tàn
戈gē

The characters 探 and 戈 carry no meaning of their own here; together they spell the foreign sound for tango.

Sound-only characters

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
扌Written in full as手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
𥥍
𥥍𥥍探tàn
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In 探, the 扌 part is a hand, and 𥥍 gives the sound.

Open 探 →

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

戈 is drawn as an ancient dagger-ax with one blade; its long diagonal stroke comes from the weapon's vertical handle.

Open 戈 →
Appears in
Dance & Performance

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