ěr
noun #13,220

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 bait; lure
  2. 2 pastry; food (archaic)

Examples

Tā zài yúgōu shàng guà le ěr.
He put bait on the fishing hook.
Bùyào shàngdàng, nà shì yòu'ěr.
Don't fall for it, that's bait.

Tips

usage
is commonly seen in compounds: 鱼饵 (fish bait), 诱饵 (lure / decoy). On its own it's more literary.

Components

radical
shí
food (radical form of 食)
Three-stroke food radical on the left, side form of . originally named a steamed rice cake, and from there extended to bait - food set out to lure animals or fish. Groups with rice, dumpling, bun, flatcake, inn-restaurant - chars about something edible.
phonetic
ěr
ear
Right side supplies the sound - ěr read straight across with no shift. Pure phonetic role; the ear imagery has no semantic contribution. Same phonetic appears in lake-name, ear ornament, erbium - a tight ěr family with two chemistry-table entries.

Stroke Order

ěr