箔 (bó) — (bound form) foil; metal leaf; (bound form) bamboo tray for rearing silkworms; (bound form) door curtain or screen made of reeds or sorghum stalks
Definition
箔 (bó) is a bound form rarely used alone — it usually appears as a second element in compounds like 金箔 (gold leaf) or 蚕箔 (silkworm tray). The meaning 'foil/metal leaf' (金箔, 银箔) is by far the most common in modern use.
bound form
foilmetal leafbamboo tray for rearing silkwormsdoor curtain or screen made of reeds or sorghum stalks
Easily confused
- 博bósound-alikeold variant of 博
- 勃bósound-alike(bound form) flourishing, thriving
- 搏bósound-alike(bound form) to wrestle, to fight, to struggle
- 泊bósound-aliketo moor (a ship); to be at anchor
- 魄bósound-alike(bound form) used in 落魄 (luòbó) meaning down-and-out, disheartened
- 驳bósound-aliketo refute, to contradict
Examples
- 。Zhè zhāng jīn bó hěn piào liang.This piece of gold leaf is beautiful.
- 箔。Wǒ yé ye yòng zhú zi zuò le yí gè cán bó.My grandpa made a silkworm tray out of bamboo.
- 箔。Qīng míng jié tā men shāo le hěn duō jīn bó hé yín bó.During Qingming Festival, they burned a lot of gold and silver foil.
Origin
Sound + meaning六书liùshū
形声xíngshēngMost characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.
In 箔, 竹 is the bamboo part, and 泊 gives the sound. This does not explain the screen or door-curtain meanings.
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