有机 (yǒu jī) — organic (relating to farming or food grown with…

Definition

adjective

organic (relating to farming or food grown without artificial chemicals)

Examples

有机。
Wǒ zuì jìn kāi shǐ mǎi yǒu jī shū cài chī le.
I recently started buying organic vegetables to eat.
有机。
Zhè jiā cān tīng zhǐ yòng yǒu jī de miàn fěn.
This restaurant only uses organic flour.
有机。
yǒu jī Nóng yè duì huán jìng hěn yǒu hǎo chù.
Organic farming is very good for the environment.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

有yǒuhave

机jīlife force

有 means 'have' and 机 relates to 'life force'; the term 'organic' is fixed and not built directly from the parts.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

肉肉ròumeat

Sound part声符shēngfú

又

又yòu有yǒu

Same sound today

The form 有 combines 又, used for its sound, with a shape from 肉, 'meat'; the hand-holding-meat story is a folk explanation, not shown in the oldest shape.

Open 有 →

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

木几机

Meaning part形符xíngfú

木木mùtree; wood

Sound part声符shēngfú

几

几jǐ机jī

Same sound today

The left part is 木 (tree; wood), and the right part 几 gives the sound.

Open 机 →

Appears in