趾甲 (zhǐ jiǎ) — toenail | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Toenail — the hard covering on the tip of a toe. The general word for any nail is 指甲; 趾甲 specifies the nail of the foot, not the hand.

noun

toenail

Measure word · 个

趾甲。
Wǒ de zhǐ jiǎ xū yào jiǎn yí xià.
I need to trim my toenails.
趾甲。
Tā xǐ huan bǎ zhǐ jiǎ tú chéng hóng sè.
She likes to paint her toenails red.
，趾甲。
Pǎo bù shí bù xiǎo xīn tī dào le shí tou, zhǐ jiǎ shòu shāng le.
While running, I accidentally kicked a stone and hurt my toenail.

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.

趾 names the toe and 甲 the nail, so the word is the nail on a toe.

Characters in this word

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

趾 combines 足 (foot) with 止, which meant foot and supplied the sound; the earliest written form was 止.

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

甲 is drawn as a hard protective shell, carapace, or scales of an animal, or as armor made of connected plates.

Appears in