吉它 (jí tā) — guitar | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

吉它 is an older or variant spelling of 吉他 (jítā, 'guitar'). Use 吉他 in modern writing; 吉它 appears in some older texts or informal contexts.

noun

guitar

Measure word · 把

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

吉它 spells the foreign name for a guitar; 吉 and 它 here carry no meaning of their own.

Sound-only characters

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

In the earliest forms, 吉 was drawn with a mouth-like lower part and an upper part that later became today's upper shape.

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

它 originally drew a snake. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write the pronoun “it”, so the picture and the meaning are unrelated.

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