Definitions
Etymology
Pictograph of a signboard attached to a door. Based on the original meaning "signboard". The meaning later shifted to "tablet" and "flat".
About
扁 originated as a pictograph of a signboard attached to a door, combining the element 户 (a single-leaf door) with a shape representing a tablet or bamboo slips. It originally depicted a wooden placard mounted flat above a doorway for identification or decoration. Because such boards were wide and thin, the character's meaning shifted from a concrete "signboard" or "tablet" to the descriptive sense of flat, thin, or compressed. Over time this adjectival use overtook the nominal meaning, and 扁 now broadly describes anything lacking depth or thickness. The character also functions as a phonetic component in numerous other characters, while its form preserves the link between doorways and flat wooden boards that grounds its modern geometric definition.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
这个纸箱被压得很扁。
妈妈今天买了扁豆。
他用扁担挑着两桶水。
别把面包压扁了。
他的扁桃体有些发炎。
他一拳把沙袋打扁了。
足球没气，已经扁了。
不要看扁别人的努力。
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