流星雨 (liú xīng yǔ) — meteor shower | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

meteor shower

Measure word · 场

流星雨。
Zuó wǎn wǒ kàn dào le zhuàng guān de liú xīng yǔ.
I saw a spectacular meteor shower last night.
流星雨。
Měi nián bā yuè dōu huì yǒu yīng xiān zuò liú xīng yǔ.
Every August there is a Perseid meteor shower.
流星雨。
Tā men tǎng zài cǎo dì shàng xīn shǎng liú xīng yǔ.
They lay on the grass enjoying the meteor shower.

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.

流星meteor

偏正Modifier + head

流 means streaming, 星 means star, and 雨 means shower, so the word pictures a shower of streaming stars.

Characters in this word

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

㐬

㐬㐬流liú

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

流 has 水, water, and 㐬, which gives the sound. The water part matches meanings such as flow.

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

The top of 星 is a later simplified form of 晶, twinkling stars; the bottom 生 shows the sound.

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

The shape 雨 is an old picture of a cloud with rain drops falling from it; the top line was added later.

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