高炮 (gāo bāo) — antiaircraft gun

Definition

noun
antiaircraft gun
Measure word · 门

Examples

  • 高炮。
    Jūn duì yòng gāo bāo lái fáng yù kōng zhōng xí jī.
    The military uses antiaircraft guns to defend against air attacks.
  • 高炮。
    Zhè zhǒng gāo bāo kě yǐ zì dòng gēn zōng mù biāo.
    This type of antiaircraft gun can automatically track targets.
  • 高炮。
    Tā men yòng gāo bāo jī luò le dí jī.
    They used antiaircraft guns to shoot down enemy planes.

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.

高gāohigh
炮pàogun

高 points to high targets; 炮 is a gun, giving antiaircraft gun.

Characters in this word

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

高 was drawn as a tall building.

Open 高 →

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
火火huǒ
Sound part声符shēngfú
包
包bāo炮pào
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

炮 combines 火 and 包; 包 supplies the sound.

Open 炮 →

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