Péi
noun #23,581

Meanings

  1. 1 Pei (Chinese surname)
  2. 2 (of a garment) long and flowing

Examples

Péi xiānsheng shì gōngsī de chuàngshǐrén.
Mr. Pei is the founder of the company.
Zhùmíng jiànzhùshī Bèi Yùmíng de xìng yǒushí yě pīnxiě wéi Péi.
The surname of the famous architect I.M. Pei is sometimes also romanized as Pei.

Tips

usage
is a relatively uncommon Chinese surname. Its literary secondary meaning (of a garment: long and flowing) appears in classical texts but almost never in modern usage.

Components

radical
clothing
Clothing radical at the bottom, the indexing radical. originally named a long flowing robe, then became a surname carried by many notable historical figures - Tang-era chancellors, generals, scholars. The clothing radical anchors the original sense; today the char is almost exclusively a surname read Péi.
phonetic
fēi
not; wrong
Top supplies the sound - fēi drifting to péi through a regular f/p alternation in old Chinese, the same shift that gives fù versus bà. Same phonetic appears in to arrange, to pace, coffee, sorrow - a wide fei/pei family.

Stroke Order

Péi