杀人犯 (shā rén fàn) — murderer | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

murderer

Measure word · 个

Examples

杀人犯。
Jǐng chá zhōng yú zhuā zhù le nà ge shā rén fàn.
The police finally caught that murderer.
杀人犯。
Zhè ge shā rén fàn bèi pàn le wú qī tú xíng.
This murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment.
杀人犯。
shā rén fàn Zài fǎ tíng shàng chéng rèn le zì jǐ de zuì xíng.
The murderer admitted his crimes in court.

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.

杀人kill a person

杀shākill人rénperson

动宾Verb + object

犯fànoffender; criminal

杀人 means killing a person, and 犯 is an offender; together they name a murderer.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 殺; 杀 is its simplified writing.

人人rénperson
又又yòuright hand

The traditional form 殺 comes from an old drawing of a boar impaled in the head, with 人 and 又 added to show a person doing the killing; the simplified 杀 is a later abbreviation.

Open 杀 →

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.

Open 人 →

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

犬犬quǎn

Sound part声符shēngfú

𢎘

𢎘𢎘犯fàn

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

犯 combines 犬 and 𢎘: 犬 gives the meaning, and 𢎘 gives the sound.