布谷 (bù gǔ) — cuckoo (bird) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

cuckoo (bird)

Measure word · 只

，布谷。
Chūn tiān lái le, bù gǔ kāi shǐ jiào le.
Spring has come, and the cuckoo starts calling.
布谷。
bù gǔ De jiào shēng hěn hǎo tīng.
The cuckoo's call is very pleasant.
布谷。
Wǒ xiǎo shí hou cháng tīng dào bù gǔ de jiào shēng.
When I was young, I often heard the cuckoo's call.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

拟声nǐshēngOnomatopoeia

The characters imitate a sound; their individual meanings play no part.

The syllables imitate the cuckoo's call; the characters carry no independent meaning in this bird name.

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

巾巾jīnkerchief

Sound part声符shēngfú

父

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

布 pairs 巾, a kerchief, with 父 as a sound part.

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

The shape of 谷 comes from a picture of a valley: an opening between two near-parallel lines for mountain walls.

Appears in