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吃素 (chī sù) — to be vegetarian, to abstain from meat

Definition

A colloquial verb phrase meaning 'to be vegetarian / not eat meat', often temporary or by choice. Pairs with 开始 (start), 多年 (many years), or 健康/宗教 reasons, and can be made ongoing by inserting 了 (他已经吃素三年了).

verb
to be vegetarianto abstain from meat

Examples

  • 吃素。
    Wǒ jué dìng kāi shǐ chī sù.
    I decided to start being vegetarian.
  • 。
    Tā yǐ jīng chī le sān nián sù le.
    He has been vegetarian for three years.
  • 吃素。
    Hěn duō rén wéi le jiàn kāng xuǎn zé chī sù.
    Many people choose to be vegetarian for health.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

吃chīeat
素sùvegetarian food

吃 'eat' and 素 'vegetarian food' combine to mean abstaining from meat.

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
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
乞
乞qǐ吃chī
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

吃 combines 口 (mouth) with 乞, which gives the sound; it originally wrote a word meaning to stutter.

Open 吃 →

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

The shape of 素 came from a picture of hands braiding thread.

Open 素 →
Appears in
Food (General)

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