云彩 (yún cai) — clouds (colloquial) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Colloquial, everyday word for 'clouds', more spoken than written. Sibling 云 yún is the neutral/literary equivalent, more common in writing and compounds (云层, 云计算).

noun

clouds (colloquial)

Measure word · 朵

Examples

云彩，。
Jīn tiān tiān shàng de yún cai zhēn hǎo kàn, xiàng mián huā yí yàng.
The clouds in the sky today are so pretty, like cotton.
，云彩。
Fēng yì chuī, yún cai jiù sàn kāi le.
As soon as the wind blows, the clouds scatter.
云彩。
Bàng wǎn de yún cai bèi rǎn chéng le chéng hóng sè.
The clouds at dusk were dyed orange-red.

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.

彩cǎicolor/appearance

云 'cloud' combines with 彩 'color/appearance' to refer to clouds.

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 雲; 云 is its simplified writing.

雨云雲

雨雨yǔrain
云云yúncloud

The traditional form 雲 is 雨 (rain) plus 云; 云 was the original writing for 'cloud', and 雨 was added to separate it from the borrowed sense 'to say'.

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

采彡彩

Meaning part形符xíngfú

彡彡shān

Sound part声符shēngfú

采

采cǎi彩cǎi

Same sound today

彩 puts 采, which gives the sound, next to 彡, the three-stroke mark that carries the meaning.

Appears in

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