工蚁 (gōng yǐ) — worker ant | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

worker ant

Measure word · 只

Examples

工蚁。
gōng yǐ Fù zé xún zhǎo shí wù.
Worker ants are responsible for finding food.
工蚁。
Zhè ge yǐ qún lǐ yǒu shàng qiān zhī gōng yǐ.
There are thousands of worker ants in this ant colony.
工蚁。
gōng yǐ De tǐ xíng bǐ yǐ hòu xiǎo.
Worker ants are smaller in size than the queen.

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.

工 indicates working and 蚁 indicates ant, naming the ant that performs work.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

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 蟻; 蚁 is its simplified writing.

虫義蟻

Meaning part形符xíngfú

虫虫chónginsect

Sound part声符shēngfú

義

義yì蟻yǐ

Same sound today

The traditional form 蟻 pairs 虫 (insect) with 義 as a sound part; the simplified 蚁 is a shorthand, and its parts are not the historical components.

Appears in

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