蒜头 (suàn tóu) — head of garlic, bulb of garlic

Definition

noun
head of garlicbulb of garlic
Measure word · 头

Examples

  • 蒜头。
    Wǒ cóng cài shì chǎng mǎi le yí gè suàn tóu.
    I bought a head of garlic from the market.
  • 蒜头。
    Zuò zhè dào cài xū yào liǎng gè suàn tóu.
    To make this dish, you need two heads of garlic.
  • 蒜头，。
    Bǎ suàn tóu bāo kāi, qǔ chū suàn bàn bèi yòng.
    Peel the garlic head and take out the cloves for later use.

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.

蒜suàngarlic
头tóubulb

蒜 (garlic) and 头 (bulb) combine to mean the bulb of garlic.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 蒜 →

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 頭; 头 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yèhead
Sound part声符shēngfú
豆
豆dòu頭tóu
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 頭 shows 頁, meaning head, beside 豆 as a sound component; the simplified 头 is a later shorthand.

Open 头 →

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