粗话 (cū huà) — vulgar language; coarse words; profanity

Definition

noun

vulgar languagecoarse wordsprofanity

Measure word · 句

粗话。
Qǐng bú yào zài hái zi miàn qián shuō cū huà.
Please don't use coarse language in front of children.
粗话，。
Zhè bù diàn yǐng lǐ yǒu hěn duō cū huà, bú shì hé xiǎo hái kàn.
This movie has a lot of coarse language, not suitable for children.
粗话。
Tā yīn wèi shuō le cū huà ér xiàng lǎo shī dào qiàn.
He apologized to the teacher for using coarse language.

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.

粗 'coarse' and 话 'speech' combine to mean coarse or vulgar speech.

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.

米且粗

Meaning part形符xíngfú

米米mǐrice

Sound part声符shēngfú

且

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

粗 pairs 米 (rice), which points to its meaning, with 且, which gives a clue to its sound.

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 話; 话 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

𠯑

𠯑𠯑話huà

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In the traditional form 話, 言 relates to words and 𠯑 gives the sound; the simplified 话 is a shorthand, so its right side is not that sound part.

Appears in