fǎng
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 a boat (especially a pleasure boat or houseboat)
  2. 2 two boats lashed side by side

Examples

Yì sōu huàfǎng mànmàn shǐ guò húmiàn.
A painted pleasure boat slowly crossed the lake.
Yíhéyuán de hú biān yǒu yí zuò shífǎng.
There is a marble boat by the lake in the Summer Palace.

Tips

usage
usually means an ornamental pleasure boat, as in 画舫 (a decorated lake barge) and 石舫 (a stone boat-shaped pavilion). Its older sense, two boats tied together, is now literary only.

Components

radical
zhōu
boat
is the boat radical, a pictograph of a small craft. It tells you is a kind of vessel, grouping it with (ship) and (boat).
phonetic
fāng
square; side
gives the sound, shifting tone from fāng to fǎng. It also faintly fits the old 'two boats side by side' sense, since can suggest things set parallel.

Stroke Order

fǎng