玛瑙 (mǎ nǎo) — agate | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

agate

Measure word · 块

Examples

玛瑙，。
Tā dài le yí chuàn mǎ nǎo xiàng liàn, fēi cháng piào liang.
She wore a string of agate necklace, very beautiful.
玛瑙，。
Zhè kuài mǎ nǎo lái zì bā xī, yán sè hěn tè bié.
This piece of agate comes from Brazil, with a very special color.
玛瑙。
Tā shōu cáng le xǔ duō bù tóng yán sè de mǎ nǎo.
He collected many agates of different colors.

Origin

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

玛 and 瑙 carry no meaning of their own here; together they name agate.

Sound-only characters

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 瑪; 玛 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

𤣩Written in full as玉yùjade

Sound part声符shēngfú

馬

馬mǎ瑪

Same sound today

For 玛, the traditional form 瑪 combines 𤣩, a jade part, with 馬, which gives the sound.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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