大虫 (dà chóng) — tiger (dialectal or historical term)

Definition

A dialectal or literary old name for 'tiger' (老虎), not the everyday word. You will meet it in historical novels or regional speech.

noun

tiger (dialectal or historical term)

Measure word · 只

大虫。
Wǔ sōng zài jǐng yáng gāng shàng dǎ sǐ le yì zhī dà chóng.
Wu Song killed a tiger on Jingyang Ridge.
，大虫。
Zài wǒ men lǎo jiā de fāng yán lǐ, lǎo hǔ jiào dà chóng.
In the dialect of my hometown, tigers are called dàchóng.
大虫。
Zhè běn lì shǐ xiǎo shuō lǐ de dà chóng qí shí shì lǎo hǔ de jiù chēng.
The 'dàchóng' in this historical novel is actually an old name for tiger.

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.

大 'big' and 虫 'creature' describe a tiger as a great beast.

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.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 蟲; 虫 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 蟲 is the one the reference discusses; 虫 is also a traditional character on its own.