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萝卜 (luó bo) — radish

Definition

noun
radish
Measure word · 个, 根

Examples

  • 萝卜。
    Tā qiè le yì gēn luó bo zuò cài.
    He cut a radish to cook.
  • 萝卜。
    Zhè ge luó bo yòu cuì yòu duō zhī.
    This radish is crispy and juicy.
  • 萝卜。
    Dōng tiān wǒ xǐ huan hē luó bo tāng.
    In winter I like to drink radish soup.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

萝luó
卜bǔ

The characters 萝 and 卜 carry no separate meaning here; together they name a radish.

Sound-only characters

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 蘿; 萝 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
艸艸cǎo
Sound part声符shēngfú
羅
羅luó蘿luó
Same sound today

The traditional form 蘿 combines 艸 (plants) with 羅, which shows the pronunciation; the simplified 萝 is a later shorthand.

Open 萝 →

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

卜 is thought to come from the shape of a crack in an oracle bone, which was used for predicting the future.

Open 卜 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Vegetables

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