鹌鹑 (ān chun) — quail (the bird) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

quail (the bird)

Measure word · 只

鹌鹑。
Zuó tiān zài gōng yuán lǐ kàn dào jǐ zhī ān chun.
Yesterday I saw a few quails in the park.
鹌鹑。
Mā ma jīn tiān zuò le ān chun tāng.
Mom made quail soup today.
鹌鹑。
Zhè zhǒng ān chun de ròu hěn hǎo chī.
This kind of quail's meat is very tasty.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

鹌ān

鹑chún

鹌 and 鹑 carry no meaning separately; 鹌鹑 names quail.

Sound-only characters

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 鵪; 鹌 is its simplified writing.

奄鳥鵪

Meaning part形符xíngfú

鳥鳥niǎobird

Sound part声符shēngfú

奄

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 鵪 uses 鳥 to show a bird and 奄 to give the sound yǎn; the simplified 鹌 is a later shorthand.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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