夜壶 (yè hú) — chamber pot | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

chamber pot

Measure word · 个

Examples

，夜壶。
Yé ye gào sù wǒ, tā xiǎo shí hou yòng yè hú.
Grandpa told me he used a chamber pot when he was a child.
夜壶。
Bó wù guǎn lǐ zhǎn shì le yí gè gǔ lǎo de yè hú.
The museum displays an ancient chamber pot.
夜壶。
Xiàn zài méi yǒu rén zài yòng yè hú le.
Now no one uses chamber pots anymore.

Origin

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.

夜 marks night use, and 壶 is a pot, so the item is a pot for nighttime.

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

夕夕xīmoon

Sound part声符shēngfú

亦

亦yì夜yè

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

The form 夜 pairs 亦 as a sound part with 夕 as a moon part, for night. In the modern shape, the 亦 part is broken up and one stroke merges into 夕.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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