大虾 (dà xiā) — big shrimp; prawn | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

big shrimpprawn

Measure word · 只

Examples

大虾。
Wǒ diǎn le yí fèn jiāo yán dà xiā.
I ordered a serving of salt-and-pepper prawns.
大虾。
Zhè zhǒng dà xiā bǐ pǔ tōng de xiā dà hěn duō.
This kind of prawn is much bigger than ordinary shrimp.
大虾。
Tā zuì xǐ huan chī qīng zhēng dà xiā.
He most likes to eat steamed prawns.

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.

大 means big and 虾 means shrimp, together naming a large shrimp or prawn.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 蝦; 虾 is its simplified writing.

虫叚蝦

Meaning part形符xíngfú

虫虫chónginsect

Sound part声符shēngfú

叚

叚jiǎ蝦xiā

Same sound today

In the traditional form 蝦, 虫 is the insect part and 叚 is the sound part; the simplified 虾 is a later abbreviation.

Appears in

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