焦味 (jiāo wèi) — burnt smell, smell of burning | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

burnt smellsmell of burning

Examples

焦味。
Chú fáng lǐ yǒu yì gǔ jiāo wèi.
There is a smell of something burning in the kitchen.
焦味，。
Wǒ wén dào jiāo wèi, gǎn jǐn guān diào le huǒ.
I smelled something burning and quickly turned off the fire.
焦味。
Zhè ge miàn bāo kǎo dé yǒu diǎn jiāo wèi.
This bread is baked a bit burnt-smelling.

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.

A burnt smell is the smell of something scorched.

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

隹隹zhuībird

Sound part声符shēngfú

小

小xiǎo焦jiāo

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The 焦 glyph first paired 隹 (bird) with 小 as a sound part. The 小 part later changed into a fire shape, and the character was then used for scorching.

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

口未味

Meaning part形符xíngfú

口口kǒumouth

Sound part声符shēngfú

未

未wèi味wèi

Same sound today

味 combines 口 (mouth) with 未, which gives the sound wèi; the mouth part relates to taste.

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