戈比 (gē bǐ) — kopeck (monetary unit of Russia and some other countries)

Definition

noun
kopeck (monetary unit of Russia and some other countries)

Examples

  • ，戈比。
    Tā zài é luó sī liú xué shí, huā le yì gē bǐ mǎi le zhāng míng xìn piàn.
    When he was studying in Russia, he spent a kopeck to buy a postcard.
  • 戈比，。
    Zhè zhǒng jì niàn bì jià zhí zhǐ yǒu jǐ gē bǐ, dàn hěn yǒu shōu cáng yì yì.
    This commemorative coin is only worth a few kopecks, but it has great collectible value.
  • ，戈比。
    Jiù bǎn huò bì zhōng, yì lú bù děng yú yì bǎi gē bǐ.
    In the old currency, one ruble equaled one hundred kopecks.

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.

戈gē
比bǐ

戈比 only spells the foreign word kopeck; the characters carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

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

戈 is drawn as an ancient dagger-ax with one blade; its long diagonal stroke comes from the weapon's vertical handle.

Open 戈 →

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

  • 匕匕bǐ
  • 匕匕bǐ

比 is two 匕 placed side by side. Chu Wan-li treats both as sound parts, while an old reading takes the side-by-side arrangement as putting things next to each other.

Open 比 →

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