木乃伊 (mù nǎi yī) — mummy (preserved corpse)

Definition

noun

mummy (preserved corpse)

Measure word · 个

木乃伊。
Zài āi jí de jīn zì tǎ lǐ fā xiàn le hěn duō mù nǎi yī.
Many mummies were found in the Egyptian pyramids.
木乃伊。
Bó wù guǎn lǐ zhǎn lǎn le yí jù sān qiān nián qián de mù nǎi yī.
The museum exhibited a mummy from three thousand years ago.
CT木乃伊。
Kē xué jiā yòng CT sǎo miáo yán jiū le nà jù mù nǎi yī.
Scientists used a CT scan to study that mummy.

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.

The characters 木乃伊 spell a foreign name for a preserved corpse; individually they do not mean wood, then, or clothing here.

Sound-only characters

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

木 is drawn as a tree, with branches above and roots below.

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

The origin of 乃 is uncertain: it may have drawn a sideways person, a rope, a thrown rope, or a pulling motion.

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

亻尹伊

Meaning part形符xíngfú

亻Written in full as人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

尹

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

The left part 亻 shows a person. The right part 尹 is used for the sound.

Appears in