杀手 (shā shǒu) — killer, murderer, hit man; (figurative) formidable player, expert, master (in a field)

Definition

杀手 is literally a 'killer / hit man', but the figurative sense is widely used to praise someone devastatingly skilled — closer to 高手 than to 凶手 (which always means a real criminal).

noun
killermurdererhit man(figurative) formidable playerexpertmaster (in a field)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 杀手。
    Nà ge shā shǒu yǐ jīng bèi jǐng chá zhuā zhù le.
    That killer has already been caught by the police.
  • 杀手，。
    Tā jiǎn zhí jiù shì qiú chǎng shàng de shā shǒu, měi chǎng dōu néng jìn liǎng sān gè qiú.
    He's like a killer on the court — he scores two or three goals every game.
  • 杀手，。
    Tā zài bān lǐ shì kǎo shì shā shǒu, měi cì dōu shì dì yī míng.
    He is an exam killer in class; he comes first every time.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

杀shākill
手shǒuperson/hand

杀 kill specifies the 手 person/hand, giving 杀手 as a killer.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 殺; 杀 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 殺 comes from an old drawing of a boar impaled in the head, with 人 and 又 added to show a person doing the killing; the simplified 杀 is a later abbreviation.

Open 杀 →

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

手 draws a five-fingered human hand: the top line is a bent middle finger, and the horizontal lines show the other four fingers.

Open 手 →
Appears in
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