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黄豆 (huáng dòu) — soybean

Definition

noun
soybean
Measure word · 颗

Examples

  • 黄豆。
    Wǒ měi tiān zǎo shàng hē yì bēi huáng dòu dòu jiāng.
    I drink a glass of soybean milk every morning.
  • 黄豆。
    Mā ma yòng huáng dòu zuò le hěn duō hǎo chī de cài.
    Mom made a lot of delicious dishes with soybeans.
  • 黄豆。
    huáng dòu De yíng yǎng jià zhí hěn gāo.
    Soybeans have very high nutritional value.

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.

黄huángyellow
豆dòubean

The bean 豆 is yellow, giving the name for soybean.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 黃; 黄 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
田田tiánfield
Sound part声符shēngfú
炗
炗guāng黃huáng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 黃 pairs 田 (field) with 炗 (light), which gives the sound; the simplified 黄 is a shorthand and its parts are not historical components.

Open 黄 →

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

豆 originally drew some kind of container. It was borrowed for its sound to write the plant name, so the picture and the meaning are unrelated.

Open 豆 →
Appears in
Vegetables

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