匹

pǐ
measure word HSK 5 #1,915

Meanings

  1. 1 classifier for horses
  2. 2 classifier for bolts of cloth

Examples

HSK 5
Nà pǐ báimǎ pǎo de zhēn kuài.
That white horse runs really fast.
HSK 6
Cǎoyuán shang yǒu sān pǐ mǎ.
There are three horses on the grassland.
HSK 6
Tā mǎi le liǎng pǐ bù zuò yīfu.
She bought two bolts of cloth to make clothes.

Tips

usage
匹 is primarily used for horses (匹马) and bolts of cloth (匹布). For other animals, use 只 or 头. Using 匹 for non-horse animals sounds wrong.
culture
千里马 (qiānlǐ mǎ, a horse that can run 1000 li) means an exceptionally talented person. 一匹千里马 is someone with rare talent.

Components

radical
匚 fāng
right-open box (radical)
Outer wrapping 匚 - the open-box radical (Kangxi #22), a frame open to the right. Indexing radical of 匹. (Visually near-identical to 匸 #23 with the same shape; modern dictionaries assign 匹 to 匚.) The frame outlines a folded length of cloth or a paired roll, source of 匹's measure-word use for cloth bolts and matched horses.
semantic
儿 ér
legs; child shape
Inner two strokes - graphically 儿 (a person's legs / paired uprights). In 匹 they represent the two layers of a folded bolt of cloth tucked inside the frame; the original picture is a length doubled back on itself, source of both 'a bolt of cloth' and 'a matched pair' (a horse paired with another, hence 一匹马).

Stroke Order

匹 pǐ