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车头 (chē tóu) — front of a vehicle; locomotive, train engine

Definition

noun
front of a vehiclelocomotivetrain engine
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 车头。
    Zhè liàng qì chē de chē tóu zhuàng huài le.
    The front of this car is damaged.
  • 车头。
    Huǒ chē de chē tóu zhèng zài mào yān.
    The locomotive is smoking.
  • 车头。
    Tā zhàn zài chē tóu qián miàn pāi zhào.
    He is standing in front of the locomotive taking photos.

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.

车chēvehicle
头tóufront part

车 vehicle with 头 front part gives a vehicle front or locomotive.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 車; 车 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 車 was drawn as a carriage seen from above, with wheels on both sides and a shaft at the front; the simplified 车 is a later shorthand.

Open 车 →

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 頭; 头 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yèhead
Sound part声符shēngfú
豆
豆dòu頭tóu
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 頭 shows 頁, meaning head, beside 豆 as a sound component; the simplified 头 is a later shorthand.

Open 头 →
Appears in
Vehicles

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