小偷 (xiǎo tōu) — petty thief, pilferer

Definition

noun

petty thiefpilferer

Measure word · 个

小偷。
Jǐng chá zhuā zhù le nà ge xiǎo tōu.
The police caught that thief.
小偷。
Wǒ de qián bāo bèi xiǎo tōu tōu le.
My wallet was stolen by a thief.
小偷。
Zhè ge xiǎo qū zuì jìn yǒu hěn duō xiǎo tōu.
This neighborhood has had many thieves recently.

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.

小xiǎosmall/petty

偷tōusteal/thief

小 gives the sense of petty, and 偷 gives the sense of stealing or a thief.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 小 comes from three small dots, later elongated into its strokes; the apparent parts 八 and 丨 are a later way of seeing it.

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

亻俞偷

Meaning part形符xíngfú

亻Written in full as人rén

Sound part声符shēngfú

俞

俞yú偷tōu

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

The left part 亻, a standing person, points to the idea of someone doing the act, while the right part 俞 gives the character its sound.

Appears in