曾祖母 (zēng zǔ mǔ) — paternal great-grandmother

Definition

Father's father's mother — the paternal great-grandmother. Compare with 曾祖父 (paternal great-grandfather); 外祖母 is the maternal grandmother, one more generation up.

noun

paternal great-grandmother

Measure word · 位

Examples

曾祖母。
Wǒ de zēng zǔ mǔ yǐ jīng jiǔ shí duō suì le.
My great-grandmother is already over ninety.
曾祖母。
zēng zǔ mǔ Zài wǒ xiǎo de shí hou gěi wǒ jiǎng le hěn duō gù shi.
When I was little, my great-grandmother told me many stories.
曾祖母。
Wǒ men jiā yǒu zēng zǔ mǔ nián qīng shí hou de zhào piàn.
We have a photo of my great-grandmother from when she was young.

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.

曾cénggreat-grand

祖母grandmother

祖zǔgrandparent母mǔfemale

偏正Modifier + head

曾 marks a generation above 祖母, so the word means a great-grandmother.

Characters in this word

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

曾 was first drawn as a cooker for steaming food. The 'once' meaning came from borrowing the sound, so the picture does not directly show that meaning.

Open 曾 →

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

示示shì

Sound part声符shēngfú

且

且qiě祖zǔ

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

祖 was made by adding 示 to 且, and 且 gives the sound.

Open 祖 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 母 →