焦土 (jiāo tǔ) — scorched earth; war-ravaged land | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

scorched earthwar-ravaged land

Examples

，焦土。
Zhàn zhēng guò hòu, zhěng gè chéng shì biàn chéng le yí piàn jiāo tǔ.
After the war, the entire city became a scorched earth.
焦土。
Qīn lüè zhě de bào xíng liú xià yí piàn jiāo tǔ.
The invaders' atrocities left behind a scorched earth.
焦土。
Zhè chǎng dà huǒ shāo chū le jǐ shí gōng lǐ de jiāo tǔ.
This big fire burned dozens of kilometers of scorched earth.

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.

焦土 is scorched earth, with 焦 'burnt' and 土 'earth'.

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

隹隹zhuībird

Sound part声符shēngfú

小

小xiǎo焦jiāo

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The 焦 glyph first paired 隹 (bird) with 小 as a sound part. The 小 part later changed into a fire shape, and the character was then used for scorching.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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