飞艇 (fēi tǐng) — airship, dirigible | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

airshipdirigible

Measure word · 艘

Examples

飞艇。
Nà ge jù dà de fēi tǐng huǎn huǎn shēng shàng le tiān kōng.
That huge airship slowly rose into the sky.
，飞艇。
Zài zhàn zhēng nián dài, fēi tǐng céng yòng yú zhēn chá hé hōng zhà.
In wartime, airships were used for reconnaissance and bombing.
飞艇，。
Xiàn zài hěn shǎo néng kàn dào fēi tǐng le, yīn wèi tā men bèi fēi jī qǔ dài le.
Nowadays you rarely see airships because they've been replaced by airplanes.

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.

艇tǐngsmall vessel

飞 suggests flying and 艇 names a small vessel, together naming a flying craft.

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 飛; 飞 is its simplified writing.

For 飞, the traditional form 飛 pictures a bird flying upwards.

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

舟廷艇

Meaning part形符xíngfú

舟舟zhōuboat

Sound part声符shēngfú

廷

廷tíng艇tǐng

Same sound today

艇 pairs 舟, meaning boat, with 廷, which gives the sound.

Appears in

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