爵士乐队 (jué shì yuè duì) — jazz band

Definition

noun
jazz band
Measure word · 支

Examples

  • 爵士乐队。
    Zuó wǎn de jué shì yuè duì biǎo yǎn fēi cháng jīng cǎi.
    Last night's jazz band performance was wonderful.
  • 爵士乐队，。
    Tā jiā rù le yí gè jué shì yuè duì, měi zhōu pái liàn liǎng cì.
    He joined a jazz band and rehearses twice a week.
  • 爵士乐队。
    Zhè jiā jiǔ bā jīng cháng yǒu jué shì yuè duì xiàn chǎng yǎn chū.
    This bar often has live performances by a jazz band.

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.

爵士jazz
爵jué士shì
乐队band
乐lèmusic队duìteam
偏正Modifier + head

The characters 爵士 spell a foreign word, and 乐队 names a band.

Characters in this word

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

爵 originally pictured a sparrow-shaped wine vessel, sometimes with a hand holding it. In the modern form, the vessel's parts were reshaped and separated.

Open 爵 →

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

The shape 士 comes from a simple drawing of a war axe. The character later came to mean a soldier, officer, or intellectual.

Open 士 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 樂; 乐 is its simplified writing.

In the traditional form 樂, 絲 (string) with 木 (wood) shows strings on a piece of wood, a musical instrument; the simplified 乐 is a later shorthand.

Open 乐 →

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 隊; 队 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
阜阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
㒸
㒸㒸隊duì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 隊 has 阜 as the meaning part and 㒸 as the sound part.

Open 队 →

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