箭 (jiàn): arrow

Measure Word

一支箭 zhī

Meanings

1 arrow
2 arrow-shaped thing

Examples

HSK 5

他射出了一支箭。

Tā shè chū le yī zhī jiàn.

He shot an arrow.

HSK 6

光阴似箭。

Guāngyīn sì jiàn.

Time flies like an arrow.

HSK 7-9

一箭双雕。

Yījiàn-shuāngdiāo.

Kill two birds with one stone (lit. one arrow, two eagles).

Tips

memory

竹 (bamboo) on top + 前 (front) on bottom - an arrow is a bamboo shaft that flies forward.

usage

Common idioms: 一箭双雕 (one arrow, two eagles = kill two birds with one stone), 光阴似箭 (time flies like an arrow).

Components

radical

⺮ zhú

bamboo (top form of 竹)

Top ⺮ is the bamboo cap, the squashed top form of 竹. Indexing radical and direct meaning-cue: arrows in ancient China were bamboo shafts. The cap visually places the arrow's material at the top of the char. Same cap on 笑, 答, 等, 笔.

phonetic

前 qián

front; forward

Bottom 前 supplies the sound (qián -> jiàn, with palatal shift) and adds strong semantic flavour - an arrow flies forward (前). So 箭 reads almost as a perfect compound ideograph: bamboo (material) on top, forward (direction) below. Same phonetic appears in 剪 (scissors) preserving a related reading.