卡迪拉克 (Kǎ dí lā kè) — Cadillac (American luxury car brand) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Cadillac (American luxury car brand)

Measure word · 辆

Examples

卡迪拉克。
Tā kāi le yí liàng xīn Kǎ dí lā kè.
He drives a new Cadillac.
卡迪拉克。
Kǎ dí lā kè Shì měi guó zuì yǒu míng de qì chē pǐn pái zhī yī.
Cadillac is one of the most famous car brands in America.
卡迪拉克。
Zhè liàng Kǎ dí lā kè yǐ jīng kāi le shí nián le.
This Cadillac has been driven for ten years.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

上上shàngup
下下xiàdown

卡 is made from 上 (up) and 下 (down), with their horizontal lines fused, showing something squeezed between above and below.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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

手手shǒuhand

Sound part声符shēngfú

立

立lì拉lā

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

拉 pairs 手 (hand) with 立, a component that supplies the sound.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in

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