鞘 (qiào): scabbard

Measure Word

一个剑鞘 gè

Meanings

1 scabbard
2 sheath (for a blade)

Characters

鞘

qiào

scabbard; sheath

Examples

他将剑插回鞘中。

Tā jiāng jiàn chā huí qiào zhōng.

He slid the sword back into its scabbard.

这把刀的鞘是用皮革做的。

Zhè bǎ dāo de qiào shì yòng pígé zuò de.

The sheath for this knife is made of leather.

Tips

memory

鞘 is made up of 革 (leather) at the bottom — scabbards are traditionally leather-covered. The top component 梢 (tip/end) hints at the shape of something that covers a pointed end.

Components

radical

革 gé

leather; hide

Leather radical on the left, the indexing component. Pictograph of an animal hide stretched and prepared for tanning. It marks 鞘 as a leather object — a scabbard or sheath was traditionally made of treated hide wrapped over a wooden core. Same radical in 鞋 shoe, 鞭 whip, 鞍 saddle.

phonetic

肖 xiào

to resemble; small

Right side 肖 xiào supplies the sound with a regular shift xiào → qiào (an old palatalisation cluster). The phonetic family is large and useful: 消 dissolve, 销 melt, 哨 whistle, 梢 treetop, 稍 slightly — all sharing the xiao/qiao/shao initials and -ao final.