糊糊 (hú hu) — (food) thick paste, mush, coarse porridge; (dia…

Definition

A casual, familiar word for a thick paste or mush, especially homemade starchy porridges (corn, sweet potato). The second sense — 'a real mess' (一团糊糊) — is colloquial, like saying 'this is a total mess.'

noun

(food) thick pastemushcoarse porridge(dialectal) troublemess

Measure word · 碗

Examples

，。
Zǎo shàng hē yì wǎn yù mǐ hú hu, dù zi nuǎn huo duō le.
Drinking a bowl of corn mush in the morning makes your stomach much warmer.
糊糊，。
Zhè jiàn shì gǎo dé yì tuán hú hu, wǒ bù zhī zěn me shōu shi.
This thing has turned into a real mess — I don't know how to clean it up.
糊糊，糊糊。
Nǎi nai huì zuò gè zhǒng gè yàng de hú hu, wǒ zuì ài chī hóng shǔ hú hu.
Grandma can make all kinds of mush; my favorite is sweet potato paste.

Origin

Reduplicated word

构词法gòucífǎ

重叠chóngdiéReduplication

A syllable said twice — for affection, for softness, or simply because that is how the word is said.

糊húpaste

糊 (paste) is doubled to name a thick, mushy substance.

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.

米胡糊

Meaning part形符xíngfú

米米mǐrice

Sound part声符shēngfú

胡

胡hú糊hú

Same sound today

糊 pairs 米 (rice) with 胡 (hú), which gives the sound. The 米 part relates to the meaning.

Open 糊 →