皮筏 (pí fá) — leather raft (made from inflated animal skins, traditionally used on rivers in western China)

Definition

noun
leather raft (made from inflated animal skins, traditionally used on rivers in western China)
Measure word · 只

Examples

  • 皮筏。
    Huáng hé shàng zhì jīn hái yǒu rén yòng pí fá dù hé.
    People still use leather rafts to cross the Yellow River today.
  • 皮筏。
    Zhè zhǒng pí fá shì yòng yáng pí zhì chéng de.
    This kind of leather raft is made from sheepskin.
  • 皮筏。
    Yóu kè men chéng zuò pí fá tǐ yàn le gǔ lǎo de dù hé fāng shì.
    The tourists rode a leather raft and experienced an ancient way of crossing the river.

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.

皮pískin
筏fáraft

皮 refers to animal skins, while 筏 is the raft they make.

Characters in this word

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

皮 shows a hand pulling fur off an animal pelt, with the pelt drawn at the upper left.

Open 皮 →

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
竹竹zhúbamboo
Sound part声符shēngfú
伐
伐fá筏fá
Same sound today

筏 has 竹 (bamboo) as its meaning part and 伐 as its sound part, pointing to a raft made of bamboo.

Open 筏 →

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