猎刀 (liè dāo) — hunting knife | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

hunting knife

Measure word · 把

猎刀。
Tā mǎi le yì bǎ liè dāo.
He bought a hunting knife.
猎刀。
Zhè bǎ liè dāo fēi cháng fēng lì.
This hunting knife is very sharp.
猎刀。
Tā yòng liè dāo qiē kāi le shéng zi.
He cut the rope with the hunting knife.

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.

猎 “hunting” specifies what kind of 刀 “knife” it is.

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

昔

昔xī猎liè

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

In 猎, the left part 犬 means dog and the right part 昔 provides the sound.

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

The shape of 刀 comes from a simple picture of a knife.