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极品 (jí pǐn) — top quality, best grade; (historical) highest official rank

Definition

Means the absolute top grade of a product or the highest official rank historically. In modern colloquial use it often carries an ironic twist for something absurdly bad.

noun
top qualitybest grade(historical) highest official rank
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 极品。
    Zhè jiā diàn de cài dōu shì jí pǐn.
    The dishes in this shop are all top quality.
  • 极品。
    Tā mǎi le yí gè jí pǐn de pí bāo.
    She bought a top-quality leather bag.
  • ，极品。
    Zài gǔ dài, jí pǐn guān yuán de quán lì hěn dà.
    In ancient times, top-ranking officials had great power.

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.

极jíhighest
品pǐngrade

极 gives highest or utmost and 品 gives grade or product, so together they name top-grade quality.

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
木木mùtree, wood
Sound part声符shēngfú
及
及jí极jí
Same sound today

极 pairs 木 (tree, wood) with 及, which provides the sound.

Open 极 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

品 repeats the same simple shape three times, representing various objects.

Open 品 →
Appears in
Good & Bad

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