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盎司 (àng sī) — ounce (unit of weight)

Definition

classifier
ounce (unit of weight)

Examples

  • 盎司。
    Zhè kuài huáng jīn zhòng wǔ shí àng sī.
    This piece of gold weighs fifty ounces.
  • 盎司。
    Pèi fāng xū yào jiā rù liǎng àng sī huáng yóu.
    The recipe requires adding two ounces of butter.
  • 盎司。
    Guó jì shì chǎng shàng huáng jīn jià gé àn àng sī jì suàn.
    On the international market, gold prices are calculated per ounce.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

盎àng
司sī

The characters spell the English loanword ounce and carry no meaning of their own.

Sound-only characters

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
皿皿mǐndish; vessel
Sound part声符shēngfú
央
央yāng盎àng
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

盎 pairs 皿, a dish or vessel, with 央 as the sound part.

Open 盎 →

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

The evidence is inconclusive: one suggestion sees 司 as a mouth giving orders beside a mark of authority, another reads that mark as a hand, and another sees it as a reversed older form.

Open 司 →
Appears in
Units & Measurement

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