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巧克力 (qiǎo kè lì) — chocolate

Definition

巧克力 is a loanword for chocolate (the sweet food/candy). Often contrasted with 咖啡 (coffee), the other common Western drink/food loanword at this level.

noun
chocolate
Measure word · 块

Examples

  • 巧克力。
    Wǒ mǎi le yì hé qiǎo kè lì sòng gěi péng you.
    I bought a box of chocolate to give to a friend.
  • 巧克力巧克力，。
    Zhè kuài qiǎo kè lì shì hēi qiǎo kè lì, bú tài tián.
    This piece of chocolate is dark chocolate, not too sweet.
  • 巧克力。
    Xiǎo hái zi dōu xǐ huan chī qiǎo kè lì.
    Children all like to eat chocolate.

Origin

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.

巧qiǎo
克kè
力lì

These characters only spell the foreign sound; 巧克力 has no independent meanings 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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
工工gōng
Sound part声符shēngfú
丂
丂kǎo巧qiǎo
Same sound today

巧 is made of 工 and 丂; 工 points to its meaning, and 丂 points to its sound.

Open 巧 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 克 →

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

力 is drawn as either an arm bending out from the side of the body or a wooden plough.

Open 力 →
Appears in
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