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兆头 (zhào tou) — omen, portent, sign

Definition

A general word for an 'omen' or 'sign' of what may happen — 预兆 is the more formal, near-synonymous term, while 苗头 points to early indications of a developing (often negative) situation.

noun
omenportentsign

Examples

  • ，兆头。
    Yì zhī niǎo fēi jìn wū lǐ, dà jiā dōu shuō zhè shì gè bù hǎo de zhào tou.
    A bird flew into the house, and everyone said it was a bad omen.
  • 兆头？。
    Nǐ kàn dào nà ge zhào tou le ma? wǒ jué de wǒ men yào xiǎo xīn.
    Did you see that sign? I think we need to be careful.
  • 兆头。
    Gǔ dài rén cháng bǎ rì shí kàn zuò bù jí lì de zhào tou.
    Ancient people often regarded solar eclipses as unlucky portents.

Origin

Derived word
构词法gòucífǎ
后缀hòuzhuìSuffix

A fixed syllable at the end that turns the word into a noun, a person, a place or the like.

兆zhàoomen
头tóuending

兆 points to a sign, and 头 makes the common name for an omen.

Characters in this word

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

The form 兆 shows two 人 (person) parts on either side of a 水 (water) part: two people fleeing with their backs to a flood.

Open 兆 →

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 頭; 头 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yèhead
Sound part声符shēngfú
豆
豆dòu頭tóu
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 頭 shows 頁, meaning head, beside 豆 as a sound component; the simplified 头 is a later shorthand.

Open 头 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Abstract Concepts

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