美餐 (měi cān) — feast; delicious meal | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

feastdelicious meal

Measure word · 顿

Examples

美餐。
Jīn tiān wǒ men zài cān tīng chī le yí dùn měi cān.
Today we had a wonderful meal at the restaurant.
美餐。
Zhè dùn měi cān shì mā ma tè yì wèi wǒ men zhǔn bèi de.
This feast was specially prepared by mom for us.
，美餐。
Wèi le qìng zhù tā de shēng rì, wǒ men zhǔn bèi le yí dùn fēng shèng de měi cān.
To celebrate his birthday, we prepared a sumptuous feast.

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.

美 means good or delicious, and 餐 means meal, so the word denotes a fine feast.

Characters in this word

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

羊羊yángram or feathers
大大dàperson

美 shows 大, a person, wearing 羊, a headdress of feathers or ram's horn.

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

𣦼食餐

Meaning part形符xíngfú

食食shíto eat; meal; food

Sound part声符shēngfú

𣦼

𣦼𣦼餐cān

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

餐 combines 食, meaning food or eating, with 𣦼 as the sound part; it originally meant “to swallow.”

Appears in

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