è
noun #12,078

Measure Word

一条 tiáo

Meanings

  1. 1 crocodile
  2. 2 alligator

Examples

Èyú shì yī zhǒng wēixiǎn de dòngwù.
Crocodiles are a dangerous animal.
Tā mǎi le yīgè èyú pí de qiánbāo.
He bought a crocodile leather wallet.

Tips

usage
is a bound form — it almost always appears as 鳄鱼 (crocodile/alligator). The idiom 鳄鱼眼泪 means 'crocodile tears' (fake sympathy).

Components

radical
fish
Left fish radical — the indexing radical. Pictograph of a fish with head, body and tail; the four dots of became a single horizontal in simplified . Anchors in the aquatic-animal family with shark, whale, eel. Crocodiles are filed under 'fish' by traditional Chinese classification.
phonetic
è
to startle; clamor (here phonetic)
Right (two mouths over a roof and ) supplies the sound è (exact match). Same phonetic family: , sword edge, jaw, calyx. Faint semantic flavor — the snapping jaws of a crocodile match the 'open-mouthed startle' image of . Rare standalone; mostly survives as this phonetic component.

Stroke Order

è