肯德基 (kěn dé jī) — Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)

Definition

noun

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)

肯德基。
Wǒ men zhōng wǔ qù kěn dé jī chī ba.
Let's go to KFC for lunch.
肯德基。
Zhè jiā kěn dé jī de zhá jī hěn hǎo chī.
The fried chicken at this KFC is delicious.
肯德基。
Tā měi zhōu dōu qù yí cì kěn dé jī.
He goes to KFC once a week.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The characters 肯德基 spell the English name Kentucky; they carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

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

肯 is described as showing 冎 (bone) and 肉 (meat), meaning meat attached to the bone.

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

彳彳chìroad

Sound part声符shēngfú

惪

惪dé德dé

Same sound today

德 combines 彳, a road, with 惪, a component meaning virtue that also supplies the sound.

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

其土基

Meaning part形符xíngfú

土土tǔearth

Sound part声符shēngfú

其

Same sound today

The lower 土 means earth, and the upper 其 gives the sound; together they form the idea of a foundation of earth.

Appears in