的 (dī): taxi; cab

Measure Word

一辆的 liàng

Meanings

1 taxi; cab

Characters

的

dī

taxi; cab

Examples

下雨了，我们打的回家吧。

Xià yǔ le, wǒmen dǎ dī huí jiā ba.

It's raining, let's grab a taxi home.

深圳的的士起步价是十块。

Shēnzhèn de dīshì qǐbùjià shì shí kuài.

Taxi flagfall in Shenzhen is ten yuan.

他是个老的哥，跑了二十年出租。

Tā shì gè lǎo dīgē, pǎo le èrshí nián chūzū.

He's a veteran cabbie — twenty years behind the wheel.

Tips

history

Pure twentieth-century Cantonese borrowing. Hong Kong adopted the English word 'taxi' as 的士 (dik1 si6) in the 1940s. When the term crossed into Mandarin, the southern dik became dī, dragging 的 into a brand-new fourth reading no classical dictionary had recorded.

register

Spoken and informal only. Combines freely: 打的 (hail a taxi), 的士 (taxi), 的哥 / 的姐 (male / female taxi driver), 面的 (boxy minivan cab, 1990s Beijing), 摩的 (motorcycle taxi). In formal writing prefer 出租车.

Components

radical

白 bái

white; clear

Left white radical (Kangxi #106). On the dī reading 白 carries no semantic load at all — the character was chosen purely as a phonetic stand-in for the Cantonese syllable dik in 的士 (taxi). The radical is just the indexing home address.

phonetic

勺 sháo

ladle; spoon (phonetic)

Right phonetic 勺. Cantonese reads 的 as dik1; that final stop softened into Mandarin dī when 的士 (dik1-si6) was relexified northward as dīshì. Same-phonetic family: 约, 钓, 灼, 酌. The grammar particle de, the adverb dí, and the noun dì all live on their own pages.

In Pop Culture

打的 dǎdī

to grab a cab

Default verb for hailing a taxi in mainland and Hong Kong cinema and TV — heard in nearly every contemporary city scene where a character flags down a ride.