水暖工 (shuǐ nuǎn gōng) — plumber | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

plumber

Measure word · 个

，水暖工。
Wǒ men jiā de shuǐ guǎn huài le, xū yào qǐng yí gè shuǐ nuǎn gōng lái xiū.
The water pipe in our house is broken; we need to call a plumber to fix it.
水暖工，。
Zhè wèi shuǐ nuǎn gōng jì shù hěn hǎo, hěn kuài jiù xiū hǎo le lòu shuǐ de dì fāng.
This plumber is very skilled; he fixed the leaky spot very quickly.
水暖工？。
Nǐ rèn shi kě kào de shuǐ nuǎn gōng ma? wǒ xiǎng huàn yí xià yù shì de shuǐ lóng tóu.
Do you know any reliable plumber? I want to change the faucet in the bathroom.

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.

水暖water and heating

联合Side by side

水 and 暖 cover water and heating, while 工 denotes a person doing the job, hence a plumber.

Characters in this word

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

水 is a simple drawing of water flowing.

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

日爰暖

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

爰

爰yuán暖nuǎn

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

暖 is made from 日, the sun, and 爰, which is used for its sound.

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.