木头人 (mù tóu rén) — blockhead, stupid person

Definition

noun

blockheadstupid person

Measure word · 个

木头人，。
Tā zhēn shì gè mù tóu rén, zhè me jiǎn dān de wèn tí dōu bú huì.
He's really a blockhead; he can't even answer such a simple question.
木头人。
Bié xiàng gè mù tóu rén yí yàng zhàn zài nà lǐ fā dāi.
Don't stand there like a blockhead, staring blankly.
木头人，。
Dà jiā dōu xiào tā shì gè mù tóu rén, yīn wèi tā zǒng shì zuò shǎ shì.
Everyone laughs at him for being a blockhead, because he always does stupid things.

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.

木头wood

后缀Suffix

木头 gives the sense of wood and 人 gives person, yielding a wooden person, a blockhead.

Characters in this word

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

木 is drawn as a tree, with branches above and roots below.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 頭; 头 is its simplified writing.

豆頁頭

Meaning part形符xíngfú

頁頁yèhead

Sound part声符shēngfú

豆

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

The traditional form 頭 shows 頁, meaning head, beside 豆 as a sound component; the simplified 头 is a later shorthand.

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Appears in