piào
noun HSK 1 #852

Measure Word

zhāng

Meanings

  1. 1 ticket

Examples

Nǐ mǎi piào le ma?
Did you buy a ticket?
Liǎng zhāng diànyǐngpiào.
Two movie tickets.

Tips

usage
is used in many compounds: 门票 (entrance ticket), 机票 (plane ticket), 火车票 (train ticket), 电影票 (movie ticket).

Components

radical
shì
altar; to show
Bottom indexing radical (altar/show) — the original depicted ash rising over an altar, slips offered to spirits. The radical preserves this ritual root, even though modern tickets are utterly secular. Same radical anchors (sacrifice), (wish), (spirit).
semantic
cover (compressed form of 西)
The upper portion was originally a doubled (fire) in oracle bone forms — paper slips burnt as offerings or used as fire-marked tallies. Over time it stylized into a -shaped cover. In it preserves the trace of those ritual fire-tallies that became modern tickets and slips.

Stroke Order

piào