专递 (zhuān dì) — (noun) special delivery; (verb) to send by spec…

Definition

noun

special delivery

verb

to send by special deliveryto courier

Easily confused

专递。
Zhè fèn wén jiàn xū yào yòng zhuān dì jì sòng.
This document needs to be sent by special delivery.
专递。
Wǒ men míng tiān zhuān dì zhè fèn hé tong.
We will courier this contract tomorrow.
专递，。
Tā xuǎn zé le zhuān dì fú wù, suǒ yǐ dì èr tiān jiù dào le.
He chose the special delivery service, so it arrived the next day.

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.

递dìdeliver

专 'special' and 递 'deliver' form special delivery or to courier.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 專; 专 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 專 shows 又, a hand, turning 叀, a spindle; this came to mean gathering several things into one.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

辶弟递

Meaning part形符xíngfú

辶Written in full as辵chuò

Sound part声符shēngfú

弟

Same sound today

递 is built from 辶 (written in full as 辵) and 弟; 辶 is the meaning part and 弟 is the sound part.