盲童 (máng tóng) — blind child (children)

Definition

noun

blind child (children)

Measure word · 个

盲童。
Zhè suǒ xué xiào zhuān mén wèi máng tóng tí gōng jiào yù.
This school provides education specially for blind children.
盲童。
máng tóng Xū yào gèng duō de shè huì guān zhù hé zhī chí.
Blind children need more social attention and support.
盲童。
Zhì yuàn zhě men dài máng tóng qù gōng yuán gǎn shòu dà zì rán.
Volunteers took the blind children to the park to experience nature.

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.

盲 means blind and 童 means child, so 盲童 is a blind child.

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.

亡目盲

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

亡

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

盲 is made from 目, meaning “eye”, plus 亡, which gives the sound. The eye part relates to the meaning of blindness.

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

The form 童 comes from a pairing of 䇂 (a chisel) with 見 (a kneeling person with a huge eye), depicting a person having an eye gouged out.