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杀人狂 (shā rén kuáng) — homicidal maniac; murderous maniac

Definition

noun
homicidal maniacmurderous maniac
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 杀人狂。
    Jǐng chá zhōng yú zhuā zhù le nà ge shā rén kuáng.
    The police finally caught that homicidal maniac.
  • 杀人狂。
    Zhè ge shā rén kuáng zài sān nián nèi shā le wǔ gè rén.
    This murderous maniac killed five people in three years.
  • 杀人狂。
    Zhè bù diàn yǐng lǐ de shā rén kuáng xíng xiàng fēi cháng kǒng bù.
    The image of the homicidal maniac in this movie is very terrifying.

Origin

Derived word
构词法gòucífǎ
后缀hòuzhuìSuffix

A fixed syllable at the end that turns the word into a noun, a person, a place or the like.

杀人kill person
杀shākill人rénperson
动宾Verb + object
狂kuángmaniac

杀人 means kill person, and 狂 adds the sense of a maniac.

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.

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
犭Written in full as犬quǎndog
Sound part声符shēngfú
㞷
㞷㞷狂kuáng
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

狂 pairs 犭 (dog) with 㞷, which gives the sound; 㞷 is an old form of a character meaning 'to go'.

Open 狂 →
Appears in
Crime & Police

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