贼赃 (zéi zāng) — stolen goods, loot, booty

Definition

noun
stolen goodslootbooty

Examples

  • 贼赃。
    Jǐng chá zài fàn zuì xiàn chǎng fā xiàn le dà liàng zéi zāng.
    The police discovered a large amount of stolen goods at the crime scene.
  • 贼赃。
    Xiǎo tōu bǎ zéi zāng cáng zài le yí gè méi rén zhī dào de dì fāng.
    The thief hid the stolen goods in a place nobody knew.
  • 贼赃。
    Tā yīn wèi mǎi mai zéi zāng bèi pàn chǔ le wǔ nián jiān jìn.
    He was sentenced to five years in prison for trading stolen goods.

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.

贼zéithief
赃zāngstolen goods

贼 (thief) and 赃 (loot) name goods taken by a thief.

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 賊; 贼 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
戈戈gēweapon
Sound part声符shēngfú
則
則zé賊zéi
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional 賊 combines 戈, a weapon, with 則 to give the pronunciation; the simplified 贼 is a later shorthand and its parts are not the historical components.

Open 贼 →

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 贓; 赃 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
貝貝bèi
Sound part声符shēngfú
臧
臧zāng贓zāng
Same sound today

The traditional form 贓 uses 貝, the shell character, to show money, and 臧 to give the sound. The simplified 赃 is a shorthand; its right side is not the old sound part.

Open 赃 →

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