副食品 (fù shí pǐn) — non-staple food, non-staple foodstuffs

Definition

Refers to everyday food items other than main staples like rice or flour — vegetables, meat, eggs, tofu, etc. 副 highlights that these are "side" or "secondary" to 主食 (staples).

noun
non-staple foodnon-staple foodstuffs

Examples

  • 副食品。
    Chāo shì de fù shí pǐn zhǒng lèi hěn duō.
    The supermarket has many kinds of non-staple foods.
  • 副食品。
    Tā měi tiān dōu huì mǎi yì xiē fù shí pǐn huí jiā.
    He buys some non-staple foods every day to take home.
  • 副食品。
    Zhè xiē fù shí pǐn de jià gé bǐ qù nián zhǎng le yì diǎn.
    The prices of these non-staple foods have gone up a bit compared to last year.

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.

副fùsecondary
食品food
食shífood品pǐngoods
偏正Modifier + head

'副' marks something secondary to staple food, and '食品' names food, giving non-staple food.

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
刂Written in full as刀dāoknife
Sound part声符shēngfú
畐
畐fú副fù
Same sound today

副 is built from 畐, which gives its sound, and 刂, a form of the knife 刀.

Open 副 →

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

  • 亼亼jímouth
  • 皀皀jía bowl of rice on a stand

The form behind 食 shows 亼, a mouth, together with 皀, a bowl of rice on a stand. In modern 食, the bowl part has changed shape.

Open 食 →

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

品 repeats the same simple shape three times, representing various objects.

Open 品 →

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.