About
The character for "cup" or "glass" originated from a pictographic concept representing a drinking vessel, with its earliest standard forms being "盃" and "桮". Both of these traditional variants clearly denote the object's function and material: "盃" incorporates the radical "皿" for a general dish or container, while "桮" uses the radical "木" for wood, with the component "否" or "不" primarily serving a phonetic role. Over centuries, the form "杯", which combines the wood radical with the simpler phonetic "不", became dominant, streamlining the character while retaining the essential idea of a wooden vessel. While its core meaning has consistently referred to a container for drinking, its application has broadened metaphorically to include any cup-shaped trophy or unit of measure, maintaining a direct semantic link to its original concrete purpose.
Example Sentences Hide
我每天用这个杯子。
请你给我一杯水。
桌子上有三个玻璃杯。
他高兴地举起了奖杯。
世界杯决赛非常精彩。
这杯咖啡的味道好极了。
他为客人斟满了一杯红酒。
冠军的奖杯将被陈列在博物馆里。