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炒面 (chǎo miàn) — fried noodles (a dish); parched flour (dry-roasted flour used in Chinese cooking)

Definition

Mostly the popular dish: stir-fried noodles. The other sense — dry-roasted flour stirred into a hot drink — is a traditional northern home remedy said to be gentle on the stomach.

noun
fried noodles (a dish)parched flour (dry-roasted flour used in Chinese cooking)
Measure word · 份

Examples

  • 炒面，。
    Wǒ xǐ huan chī chǎo miàn, yóu qí shì jiā le hěn duō shū cài de.
    I like to eat fried noodles, especially with lots of vegetables.
  • 炒面，。
    Zhè jiā diàn de chǎo miàn zuò dé hěn zhèng zōng, miàn tiáo hěn jīn dào.
    The fried noodles at this restaurant are authentic and the noodles are very chewy.
  • 炒面，。
    Lǎo lao xiǎo shí hou cháng hē chǎo miàn chōng de hū hu, shuō hěn yǎng wèi.
    My grandmother often drank a paste made from parched flour when she was young, saying it was good for the stomach.

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.

炒chǎostir-fry
面miànnoodles

炒 means stir-frying, and 面 is noodles, so the dish is noodles that have been stir-fried.

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
火火huǒ
Sound part声符shēngfú
少
少shǎo炒chǎo
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The shape combines 火 (fire) as the meaning part with 少 as the sound part.

Open 炒 →

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

面 originally drew a man’s face, with one eye exaggerated; the horizontal stroke was added later.

Open 面 →
Appears in
Grains & StaplesFood (General)

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