甲醇 (jiǎ chún) — methanol (methyl alcohol, wood alcohol) | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

methanol (methyl alcohol, wood alcohol)

Examples

甲醇。
jiǎ chún Shì yì zhǒng zhòng yào de huà gōng yuán liào.
Methanol is an important industrial chemical.
甲醇。
Gōng yè shàng cháng yòng jiǎ chún jìn xíng hé chéng fǎn yìng.
Methanol is commonly used in synthesis reactions in industry.
甲醇。
Wù yǐn jiǎ chún huì dǎo zhì shī míng shèn zhì sǐ wáng.
Ingesting methanol by mistake can cause blindness or even death.

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.

醇chúnalcohol

“甲” marks the methyl group and “醇” marks alcohol, together naming methanol.

Characters in this word

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

甲 is drawn as a hard protective shell, carapace, or scales of an animal, or as armor made of connected plates.

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

酉酉yǒu

Sound part声符shēngfú

𦎧

𦎧𦎧醇chún

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

醇 is built from 酉 and 𦎧, with 𦎧 giving the sound.

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