丈夫 (zhàng fu) — husband | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Standard, neutral word for 'husband.' 老公 (lǎogōng) is the casual/colloquial version; 先生 (xiānsheng) is more formal and also means 'Mr.'

noun

husband

Measure word · 个

丈夫。
Wǒ zhàng fu měi tiān huí jiā hěn wǎn.
My husband comes home very late every day.
丈夫。
Tā zhàng fu gěi tā mǎi le yí gè lǐ wù.
Her husband bought her a gift.
丈夫？
Nǐ zhàng fu zuò shén me gōng zuò?
What does your husband do for work?

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.

丈zhàngone-zhang height

丈 contributes the idea of full height and 夫 the idea of a man, so the word names a husband.

Characters in this word

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

丈 is made from 十 (ten) and 又 (hand), and it is explained as a length of ten chi.

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

夫 originally drew a man. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write a pronoun, so the picture and the pronoun meaning are unrelated.

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