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偷车贼 (tōu chē zéi) — car thief; bicycle thief

Definition

noun
car thiefbicycle thief
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 偷车贼。
    Jǐng chá zhuā zhù le nà ge tōu chē zéi.
    The police caught that car thief.
  • 偷车贼。
    Xiǎo qū zuì jìn chū xiàn le jǐ gè tōu chē zéi.
    Several bike thieves have appeared in the neighborhood recently.
  • 偷车贼。
    tōu chē zéi Chèn tiān hēi tōu zǒu le wǒ de zì xíng chē.
    The thief stole my bicycle under cover of darkness.

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.

偷车steal a vehicle
偷tōusteal车chēvehicle
动宾Verb + object
贼zéithief

偷 “steal” and 车 “vehicle” with 贼 “thief” build the sense “a thief who steals vehicles.”

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rén
Sound part声符shēngfú
俞
俞yú偷tōu
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left part 亻, a standing person, points to the idea of someone doing the act, while the right part 俞 gives the character its sound.

Open 偷 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 車; 车 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 車 was drawn as a carriage seen from above, with wheels on both sides and a shaft at the front; the simplified 车 is a later shorthand.

Open 车 →

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 賊; 贼 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
戈戈gēweapon
Sound part声符shēngfú
則
則zé賊zéi
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional 賊 combines 戈, a weapon, with 則 to give the pronunciation; the simplified 贼 is a later shorthand and its parts are not the historical components.

Open 贼 →
Appears in
Crime & Police

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