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灵车 (líng chē) — hearse; funeral carriage

Definition

noun
hearsefuneral carriage
Measure word · 辆

Examples

  • ，灵车。
    Zàng lǐ shàng, líng chē huǎn huǎn shǐ guò.
    At the funeral, the hearse slowly passed by.
  • 灵车，。
    Tā men gēn zài líng chē hòu miàn, mò mò de zǒu zhe.
    They walked silently behind the hearse.
  • 灵车，。
    Jiē shàng de xíng rén kàn dào líng chē, dōu tíng xià lái biǎo shì jìng yì.
    When pedestrians on the street saw the hearse, they all stopped to pay their respects.

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.

灵língspirit
车chēvehicle

灵车 joins 灵 (spirit) and 车 (vehicle) to mean a vehicle for the deceased.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 靈; 灵 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
玉玉yùjade
Sound part声符shēngfú
霝
霝líng靈líng
Same sound today

This note describes the traditional form 靈, not the simplified 灵: 霝 gives the sound, and 玉 (jade) is the meaning part.

Open 灵 →

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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