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太阳穴 (tài yáng xué) — temple (side of the head)

Definition

noun
temple (side of the head)

Examples

  • ，太阳穴。
    Tā tóu téng, róu le róu tài yáng xué.
    He had a headache and rubbed his temples.
  • 太阳穴。
    Àn mó tài yáng xué kě yǐ fàng sōng shēn tǐ.
    Massaging the temples can relax the body.
  • 太阳穴，。
    Tā bù xiǎo xīn zhuàng dào le tài yáng xué, hěn téng.
    She accidentally bumped her temple, and it hurt a lot.

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.

太阳sun
太tàigreat阳yángsun
偏正Modifier + head
穴xuéhole

太 means great and 阳 means sun, forming the sun, and 穴 means hole or acupoint.

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.

太 is a modified form of 大, with an extra dot added to show 'too big'.

Open 太 →

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 陽; 阳 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
阜阜fùhill
Sound part声符shēngfú
昜
昜yáng陽yáng
Same sound today

In the traditional form 陽, 阜 shows a hill and 昜 is the older character for the word, tied to sunshine and the sound; simplified 阳 is a later shorthand.

Open 阳 →

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

穴 possibly comes from a picture of a cave entrance or a door flap, matching meanings such as cave and hole.

Open 穴 →
Appears in
Body Parts

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