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消防车 (xiāo fáng chē) — fire engine; fire truck

Definition

noun
fire enginefire truck
Measure word · 辆

Examples

  • 消防车，。
    Tīng dào xiāo fáng chē de shēng yīn, lù shang de chē dōu ràng kāi le.
    Hearing the sound of the fire engine, the cars on the road all moved aside.
  • 消防车。
    xiāo fáng chē Zhèng zài wǎng huǒ zāi xiàn chǎng gǎn qù.
    The fire engine is rushing to the scene of the fire.
  • 消防车。
    Xiǎo qū lǐ tíng zhe yí liàng hóng sè de xiāo fáng chē.
    A red fire engine is parked in the neighborhood.

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.

消防extinguish and prevent
消xiāoextinguish防fángprevent
联合Coordinate
车chēvehicle

“消” extinguishes, “防” prevents, and “车” is a vehicle, together a vehicle for extinguishing and preventing fires.

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
氵Written in full as水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
肖
肖xiào消xiāo
Same sound today

消 has 氵 (water) beside 肖. The water part connects to putting out or making something vanish, and 肖 gives the sound.

Open 消 →

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
阝Written in full as阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
方
方fāng防fáng
Same sound today

防 pairs 阝 (written fully as 阜) with 方, which gives the sound.

Open 防 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 車; 车 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 車 was drawn as a carriage seen from above, with wheels on both sides and a shaft at the front; the simplified 车 is a later shorthand.

Open 车 →
Appears in
Vehicles

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