名画 (míng huà) — famous painting | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

famous painting

Measure word · 幅

名画。
Zhè fú míng huà shì wén yì fù xīng shí qī de jié zuò.
This famous painting is a masterpiece from the Renaissance.
名画。
Bó wù guǎn shōu cáng le xǔ duō zhōng guó míng huà.
The museum has collected many famous Chinese paintings.
名画。
Tā huā le yì qiān wàn mǎi xià yì fú míng huà.
He spent ten million to buy a famous painting.

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.

画huàpainting

“名” means famous and “画” means painting, so the word names a well-known painting.

Characters in this word

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

夕口名

名 puts 夕 (crescent moon) above 口 (mouth), showing a name spoken in the dark.

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 畫; 画 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

聿聿yùbrush

Sound part声符shēngfú

規

規guī畫huà

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

The traditional form 畫 pairs 聿, a brush, with 規 for its sound. The simplified 画 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the old parts.

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