营火 (yíng huǒ) — campfire

Definition

noun
campfire
Measure word · 堆
Easily confused

Examples

  • 营火。
    Wǒ men zài hú biān diǎn le yí gè yíng huǒ.
    We lit a campfire by the lake.
  • 营火。
    Dà jiā wéi zhe yíng huǒ chàng gē tiào wǔ.
    Everyone sang and danced around the campfire.
  • 营火。
    Wǎn shàng de yíng huǒ ràng wǒ men gǎn dào hěn wēn nuǎn.
    The campfire at night made us feel very warm.

Origin

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.

营yíngcamp
火huǒfire

Camp plus fire names a fire at a camp.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 營; 营 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
宮宮gōngpalace
Sound part声符shēngfú
熒
熒yíng營yíng
Same sound today

The traditional form 營 pairs 宮 (palace) with 熒 as a sound part, depicting a person working all night with a light on his house; the simplified 营 is a later abbreviation.

Open 营 →

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

火 is a simple drawing of a fire, with flames shown rising upward.

Open 火 →

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