卡 (qiǎ): to wedge; to pinch; to get stuck

Meanings

1 to wedge; to pinch; to get stuck
2 to clip; to fasten
3 checkpost; customs station; barrier
4 a clip; a fastener

Characters

卡

qiǎ

to wedge; to pinch; to get stuck

Examples

鱼刺卡在喉咙里了。

Yúcì qiǎ zài hóulóng lǐ le.

A fish bone is stuck in my throat.

前面有一个关卡，要检查证件。

Qiánmiàn yǒu yí gè guānqiǎ, yào jiǎnchá zhèngjiàn.

There's a checkpoint up ahead; they're going to check IDs.

她戴了一个粉色的发卡。

Tā dài le yí gè fěnsè de fàqiǎ.

She is wearing a pink hair clip.

Tips

usage

qiǎ is the older native reading and covers physical pinching/wedging: 卡住 (to get jammed — also pr. kǎzhù), 卡脖子 (to seize by the throat / choke off), 卡壳 (gun jams; speech falters). It also names anything that pinches a flow of people: 关卡 (checkpoint), 哨卡 (sentry post), 边卡 (border post) — plus small clamp-objects: 发卡 (hair clip), 卡子 (clip; clasp).

memory

The character 卡 visually fuses 上 (up) on top of 下 (down) sharing one stroke — perfect picture of something pinched, neither going up nor going down. That's the core qiǎ image: wedged, jammed, blocked.

Components

radical

卜 bǔ

divination; downward stroke

Bottom radical 卜 is also the silhouette of 下 (down) without its top bar. The qiǎ reading takes the visual pun at face value: a 'down' beneath an 'up', sharing the middle stroke = jammed between. From physical wedging came the extended senses of checkpost (a place that pinches a road) and clip/clasp (a small thing that pinches).

semantic

上 shàng

up; above

Top half is 上 (up) minus its bottom stroke. Combined with the 卜 below — itself the silhouette of 下 (down) without its top bar — the character pictures something pinched between up and down. This is the original native qiǎ image: wedged, stuck, lodged.