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葫芦 (hú lu) — bottle gourd, calabash; (mechanical) hoist, block and tackle; (poker) full house

Definition

A bottle gourd plant or its dried shell (calabash). Beyond the plant, 葫芦 also names a hoist/pulley (for the gourd-shaped pulley wheel) and a poker full house.

noun
bottle gourdcalabash(mechanical) hoistblock and tackle(poker) full house
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 葫芦。
    Zhè ge hú lu cháng dé zhēn dà.
    This gourd grew really big.
  • 葫芦。
    Gōng rén men yòng hú lu bǎ huò wù lā shàng qù.
    The workers used a hoist to pull the goods up.
  • 葫芦，。
    Tā shǒu lǐ yǒu yí gè hú lu, yíng le bù shǎo qián.
    He had a full house and won quite a bit of money.

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.

葫hú
芦lú

The characters 葫 and 芦 carry no separate meaning here; together they name the gourd.

Sound-only characters

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
艸艸cǎograss
Sound part声符shēngfú
胡
胡hú葫
Same sound today

葫 combines 艸 (grass) with 胡, which gives its sound.

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
艹Written in full as艸cǎoplant
Sound part声符shēngfú
户
户hù芦lú
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

芦 combines 艹, the plant marker, with 户, which gives the sound.

Open 芦 →
Appears in
Vegetables

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