套餐 (tào cān) — set meal (in a restaurant); package (of service…

Definition

noun

set meal (in a restaurant)package (of services or products, e.g. a phone plan or travel package)

Measure word · 份

套餐。
Zhè ge cān tīng de tào cān hěn huá suàn.
The set meal at this restaurant is a good deal.
套餐。
Wǒ huàn le yí gè xīn de shǒu jī tào cān.
I switched to a new phone plan.
套餐。
Lǚ yóu gōng sī tuī chū le yí gè háo huá tào cān.
The travel company launched a luxury travel package.

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.

Set and meal combine to name a complete combination of dishes or services.

Characters in this word

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

套 is made from 大 (large) and 長 (long), originally for something long, with some reference to hair; it later came to mean a cover or a linked group.

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

𣦼食餐

Meaning part形符xíngfú

食食shíto eat; meal; food

Sound part声符shēngfú

𣦼

𣦼𣦼餐cān

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

餐 combines 食, meaning food or eating, with 𣦼 as the sound part; it originally meant “to swallow.”

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