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高帽 (gāo mào) — (figurative) flattery, excessive praise (used in 戴高帽 'to flatter'); (literal) tall paper hat (historical punishment)

Definition

高帽 literally means a tall paper hat once used as a public punishment, but in modern Chinese it almost always appears in the set phrase 戴高帽 ('to wear a tall hat'), meaning to flatter or give someone excessive praise.

noun
(figurative) flatteryexcessive praise (used in 戴高帽 'to flatter')(literal) tall paper hat (historical punishment)
Measure word · 顶

Examples

  • 高帽，。
    Tā xǐ huan gěi bié rén dài gāo mào, qí shí dōu shì jiǎ huà.
    He likes to flatter others, but it's all insincere.
  • 高帽，。
    Bié gěi wǒ dài gāo mào le, wǒ zhī dào zì jǐ méi nà me hǎo.
    Stop flattering me — I know I'm not that good.
  • 高帽，。
    Tā tīng le nà xiē gāo mào, xīn lǐ hěn gāo xìng.
    She was very happy after hearing all that flattery.

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.

高gāotall
帽màohat

高 describes the hat's height and 帽 names the hat, together meaning tall hat.

Characters in this word

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

高 was drawn as a tall building.

Open 高 →

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
巾巾jīncloth
Sound part声符shēngfú
冒
冒mào帽mào
Same sound today

帽 uses 巾 (cloth) for the meaning and 冒 for the sound. The earlier form 冃 was later written with 目 and 巾 added.

Open 帽 →
Appears in
Clothing

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