夜莺 (yè yīng) — nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)

Definition

noun
nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)
Measure word ·

Examples

  • 夜莺
    Qīng chén, yè yīng zài lín zhōng chàng qǐ le yōu měi de gē.
    In the early morning, a nightingale began to sing a beautiful song in the forest.
  • Wǒ cóng wèi qīn yǎn jiàn guò yè yīng, zhī zài tóng huà lǐ dú dào guò tā.
    I have never seen a nightingale with my own eyes, only read about it in fairy tales.
  • 夜莺
    yè yīng De gē shēng rú cǐ dòng rén, ràng rén wàng jì le yí qiè fán nǎo.
    The nightingale's song was so touching that it made people forget all their worries.

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.

night
yīngsongbird

夜 is night and 莺 is a songbird, so it names a bird that sings at night.

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
moon
Sound part声符shēngfú
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.

Open 夜 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 莺 →
Appears in

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.