咕咚 (gū dōng) — (onomatopoeia) thud, thump, plop (sound of a heavy object falling or hitting ground/water); (onomatopoeia) gulp (sound of drinking heavily)

Definition

Onomatopoeia for a heavy thud or plop — something heavy dropping into water or hitting the ground, or a big gulp when drinking. Often reduplicated as 咕咚咕咚 to keep the sound going.

onomatopoeia
thudthumpplop (sound of a heavy object falling or hitting ground/water)gulp (sound of drinking heavily)

Examples

  • 咕咚！。
    gū dōng! Shí tou diào jìn shuǐ lǐ le.
    Plop! The stone fell into the water.
  • 咕咚，。
    Tā tīng dào gū dōng yì shēng, bù zhī dào shén me dōng xī diào le.
    He heard a thud and didn't know what had fallen.
  • ，咕咚。
    Tā kǒu kě jí le, gū dōng dì hē le yí dà kǒu shuǐ.
    He was extremely thirsty and took a big gulp of water.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
拟声nǐshēngOnomatopoeia

The characters imitate a sound; their individual meanings play no part.

咕gū
咚dōng

咕 and 咚 imitate a thudding sound; the characters do not carry independent meanings here.

Sound-only characters

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
古
古gǔ咕gū
Same sound today

咕 combines 口 (mouth) with 古, which provides the sound. The 口 part points to mouth sounds, such as clucking or cooing.

Open 咕 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 咚 →

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