重影 (chóng yǐng) — double vision (medical: diplopia); double exposure / overlapping images (photography, display, printing)

Definition

Used for any ‘doubled / ghosted image’ — in medicine (double vision) and in photography, printing, or displays (overlapping or ghosting). It is the common noun for the visible defect itself, not the cause.

noun
double vision (medical: diplopia)double exposure / overlapping images (photography, display, printing)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 重影，。
    Tā zuì jìn kàn dōng xī yǒu chóng yǐng, yī shēng shuō shì yǎn jing de wèn tí.
    He's been seeing double recently; the doctor says it's an eye problem.
  • ，重影。
    Zhè zhāng zhào piàn pāi huài le, chū xiàn le chóng yǐng.
    This photo turned out bad — there's a double exposure.
  • ，重影。
    Dǎ yìn jī de mò hé yǒu wèn tí, wén zì dōu yǒu chóng yǐng.
    There's something wrong with the printer cartridge; all the text has ghosting.

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.

重zhòngoverlapping
影yǐngimage

重 means overlapping or double, and 影 means image; together they name an image that appears twice.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
人人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
東
東dōng重zhòng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

重 developed from a picture of a man carrying a bag, with 人 for the man and 東 for the bag; a later ground element was folded into the form.

Open 重 →

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
彡彡shān
Sound part声符shēngfú
景
景jǐng影yǐng
Same sound today

影 pairs 景, which gives the sound and also carries the idea of image, with 彡, the part that points to shadow.

Open 影 →

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