骡 (luó) · mule (the offspring of a male donkey and a female…

Measure Word

一头骡 tóu

Meanings

1 mule (the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse)

Characters

骡

luó

mule

Examples

HSK 5

山区的人用骡运货。

Shānqū de rén yòng luó yùn huò.

Mountain villagers use mules to haul goods.

HSK 7-9

一头骡能驮很重的东西。

Yìtóu luó néng tuó hěn zhòng de dōngxi.

A mule can carry very heavy loads.

Tips

culture

骡 (the mule) is sterile, born from a male donkey and a female horse - the Chinese saying 驴父马母 ("donkey father, horse mother"). Prized in pre-modern China for being stronger than a donkey and more sure-footed than a horse, mules were the backbone of mountain transport.

Components

radical

马 mǎ

horse

Horse radical on the left places 骡 in the equine family - a mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Same radical drives 驴 (donkey), 驹 (colt), 骆 (camel), 骏 (steed). The simplified 马 silhouette comes from a galloping-horse pictograph.

phonetic

累 léi

accumulate; tired

累 supplies the sound - léi to luó - through a vowel shift in the lateral-onset phonetic series. Same 累 phonetic produces 螺 (luó, snail) and 骡 here. Faint semantic hint: mules are pack animals that accumulate burdens, matching the 累-tired meaning of the phonetic.