奎宁 (kuí níng) — quinine | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

quinine

奎宁。
Yī shēng gěi wǒ kāi le kuí níng lái zhì liáo nüè ji.
The doctor prescribed quinine to treat my malaria.
奎宁。
Zhè zhǒng yào hán yǒu kuí níng chéng fèn.
This medicine contains quinine.
奎宁。
kuí níng Céng jīng shì zhì liáo nüè ji de zhǔ yào yào wù.
Quinine was once the main drug for treating malaria.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The characters 奎 and 宁 together spell the foreign name for quinine; neither contributes an independent meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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

大圭奎

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

圭

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

奎 is built from 大 and 圭. The 圭 part gives the sound and originally showed two ritual axes, not earth.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 寧; 宁 is its simplified writing.

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