浮雕 (fú diāo) — relief sculpture; relief (carving) | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A carved or sculpted image that stands out from a flat surface (like stone or wood), rather than being fully three-dimensional like a statue. 浮 emphasizes the raised, projecting quality of the carving.

noun

relief sculpturerelief (carving)

Measure word · 幅

Examples

浮雕。
Zhè zuò fú diāo miáo huì le gǔ dài zhàn zhēng de chǎng jǐng.
This relief sculpture depicts scenes from ancient warfare.
浮雕。
Bó wù guǎn lǐ zhǎn chū le hěn duō jīng měi de fú diāo.
The museum displays many exquisite reliefs.
浮雕。
Tā shàn cháng zài shí tou shàng diāo kè fú diāo.
He is skilled at carving reliefs on stone.

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.

浮fúraised

雕diāocarving

浮, 'raised', with 雕, 'carving', gives a relief sculpture.

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

水水shuǐriver

Sound part声符shēngfú

孚

孚fú浮fú

Same sound today

浮 pairs 水 (river) with 孚, which gives the sound; the river part points to its meaning of floating.

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

周隹雕

Meaning part形符xíngfú

隹隹zhuī

Sound part声符shēngfú

周

周zhōu雕diāo

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

雕 pairs 隹, a bird radical, with 周, which supplies the sound.

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