小粉 (xiǎo fěn) — starch | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

starch

Examples

小粉。
Wǒ mā ma cháng yòng xiǎo fěn lái zuò tāng.
My mom often uses starch to make soup.
小粉。
Zhè zhǒng xiǎo fěn shì cóng yù mǐ lǐ tí qǔ de.
This kind of starch is extracted from corn.
小粉。
Nǐ xū yào jiā diǎn xiǎo fěn ràng zhī biàn de nóng yì xiē.
You need to add some starch to make the sauce thicker.

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.

小 means fine or small and 粉 means powder, referring to a fine starchy powder.

Characters in this word

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

八八bāto divide; to separate
丨丨gǔnsmall object

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.

米分粉

Meaning part形符xíngfú

米米mǐrice

Sound part声符shēngfú

分

分fēn粉fěn

Same sound today

粉 pairs 米 (rice) with 分 for its sound. The rice part points to face powder made from rice.

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