靶

bǎ
noun #12,303

Measure Word

一个靶 gè

Meanings

  1. 1 target
  2. 2 mark

Examples

HSK 6
Shìbīng men zhèngzài liànxí dǎbǎ.
The soldiers are practicing target shooting.
HSK 7-9
Tā měi fā zǐdàn dōu dǎzhòng le bǎ.
Every bullet he fired hit the target.

Tips

usage
打靶 means 'target practice' or 'target shooting.' 靶子 is the more common colloquial form for 'target.'

Components

radical
革 gé
leather; hide
Left-side leather radical - pictograph of an animal hide stretched out to dry, head at top and tail below. The indexing radical here, supplying the meaning: archery targets were originally stretched leather hides hung on a frame, with painted concentric circles. The radical puts 靶 in the hide-equipment family alongside 鞋 shoe, 鞭 whip, 鞍 saddle.
phonetic
巴 bā
snake; tail
Right side 巴 supplies the sound - bā shifting to bǎ through a tone change. 巴 itself originally pictured a coiled snake; the connection to targets is purely phonetic. Same phonetic appears in 把 grasp, 爸 dad, 吧 final particle - all sharing the ba reading and easy to bundle as a cluster when memorizing.

Stroke Order

靶 bǎ