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笑料 (xiào liào) — (noun) something that makes people laugh; a joke; comic material; (noun) a laughingstock; an object of ridicule

Definition

Noun for comic material or a laughingstock — the 'stuff that makes people laugh,' or a person everyone ridicules. In sense 2, the subject is being mocked, not laughing.

noun
something that makes people laugha jokecomic materiala laughingstockan object of ridicule
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 笑料，。
    Zhè ge xiàng sheng yǒu hěn duō xiào liào, guān zhòng xiào dé tíng bú xià lái.
    This crosstalk has a lot of funny bits; the audience couldn't stop laughing.
  • 笑料。
    Tā yīn wèi shuō cuò huà chéng le quán gōng sī de xiào liào.
    He became the laughingstock of the whole company because he said the wrong thing.
  • 笑料，。
    Biān jù zài jù běn lǐ jiā le bù shǎo xiào liào, ràng jù qíng gèng qīng sōng.
    The screenwriter added quite a few jokes to the script to make the plot lighter.

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.

笑xiàolaugh
料liàomaterial

笑 and 料 combine as laughing material, something that makes people laugh.

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
犬犬quǎndog
Sound part声符shēngfú
艸
艸cǎo笑xiào
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

An early 笑 used the grass 艸 for the sound and the dog 犬 for the meaning; later it was written with 竹 and 夭.

Open 笑 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

料 combines 米 (rice) with 斗 (a dipper), showing rice being measured or gauged.

Open 料 →
Appears in
Abstract Concepts

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