鞘 (qiào) · scabbard, sheath (for a blade)

Measure Word

一个剑鞘 gè

Meanings

1 scabbard
2 sheath (for a blade)

Characters

鞘

qiào

scabbard; sheath

Examples

HSK 6

他将剑插回鞘中。

Tā jiāng jiàn chā huí qiào zhōng.

He slid the sword back into its scabbard.

HSK 7-9

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 right component 肖 supplies the sound, shifting xiào → qiào.

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 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.