摄氏 (shè shì) — Celsius (temperature scale)

Definition

noun

Celsius (temperature scale)

摄氏。
Jīn tiān zuì gāo qì wēn shè shì sān shí dù.
Today's high temperature is 30 degrees Celsius.
摄氏。
Shuǐ zài shè shì yì bǎi dù shí fèi téng.
Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
摄氏。
Yī shēng shuō yào děng tǐ wēn jiàng dào shè shì sān shí qī dù yǐ xià.
The doctor said to wait until the body temperature drops below 37 degrees Celsius.

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.

摄氏 spells the foreign name Celsius; 摄 and 氏 carry no independent meaning 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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 攝; 摄 is its simplified writing.

扌聶攝

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒuhand

Sound part声符shēngfú

聶

聶niè攝shè

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 攝 combines 扌 (hand) with 聶 as a sound part; the simplified 摄 is a later shorthand.

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

The shape of 氏 is debated: one reading shows a stick with a mark on top for a clan, while others show a person bending or a tree root.

Appears in