五指山 (wǔ zhǐ shān) — Wuzhi Mountain (highest peak in Hainan, 1,840 m…

Definition

noun

Wuzhi Mountain (highest peak in Hainan, 1,840 m)Wuzhishan City (prefecture-level city in Hainan)

五指山。
wǔ zhǐ shān Shì hǎi nán dǎo de zuì gāo fēng.
Wuzhi Mountain is the highest peak on Hainan Island.
五指山。
Měi nián yǒu hěn duō yóu kè qù wǔ zhǐ shān lǚ yóu.
Every year many tourists go to Wuzhi Mountain for sightseeing.
五指山。
wǔ zhǐ shān Shì wèi yú hǎi nán dǎo de zhōng bù.
Wuzhishan City is located in the central part of Hainan Island.

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.

五指five fingers

偏正Modifier + head

The name pictures a mountain shaped like five fingers, with 五指 specifying the shape and 山 the landform.

Characters in this word

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

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

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

扌旨指

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒu

Sound part声符shēngfú

旨

Same sound today

The left part 扌 is the hand form 手. The right part 旨 gives the sound.

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

山 shows three mountain peaks side by side.