包头 (bāo tóu) — Baotou, a major city in Inner Mongolia

Definition

noun

Baotoua major city in Inner Mongolia

包头。
Wǒ zuò huǒ chē qù guò yí cì bāo tóu.
I've taken the train to Baotou once.
包头。
bāo tóu Shì nèi měng gǔ xī bù de gōng yè zhōng xīn.
Baotou is an industrial center in western Inner Mongolia.
包头。
Wǒ tīng shuō bāo tóu de yáng ròu hěn hǎo chī.
I've heard that Baotou's lamb is delicious.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 包 pictures a fetus in a womb, or a baby wrapped in cloth.

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.

豆頁頭

Meaning part形符xíngfú

頁頁yèhead

Sound part声符shēngfú

豆

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.