大清早 (dà qīng zǎo) — very early morning | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

very early morning

Examples

大清早。
Jīn tiān dà qīng zǎo tā jiù chū mén le.
He went out very early this morning.
大清早，？
dà qīng zǎo De, nǐ zěn me jiù qǐ lái le?
Why did you get up so early in the morning?
大清早。
Tā men dà qīng zǎo jiù kāi shǐ gōng zuò le.
They started working very early in the morning.

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.

清早early morning

清qīngclear早zǎomorning

偏正Modifier + head

大 stresses 清早: the very beginning of morning.

Characters in this word

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

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

氵青清

Meaning part形符xíngfú

氵Written in full as水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

青

青qīng清qīng

Same sound today

清 has 氵 (water) on the left and 青 on the right to show its sound.

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

日日rìsun

Sound part声符shēngfú

棗

棗zǎo早zǎo

Same sound today

The form 早 pairs 日 (sun) with 棗, which gives the sound; an earlier shape of 早 was a picture of an acorn.

Appears in

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