About
The character "咚" was created as an onomatopoeic graph to represent a heavy, resonant sound such as a drumbeat or a loud knock, formed by combining the semantic component "口" indicating sound or voice with the phonetic component "冬" which supplies the pronunciation "dōng". This structural composition aligns with the standard practice for crafting sound-imitative characters in Chinese, where the meaning is narrowly focused on auditory phenomena. Throughout its history, the character has retained this specific function without significant semantic shift, primarily appearing in lexical items that mimic sounds, often in reduplicated forms like "叮咚" to convey rhythmic or repeating noises. Its etymology is therefore straightforward, arising from a direct phonetic borrowing where the character's sound echoes the actual acoustic event it denotes, maintaining a consistent role within the language's inventory of symbolic representations for sounds.
Example Sentences Hide
敲门声咚咚响。
他咚地一声跳下水。
心跳咚咚地加快。
鼓声咚咚，节奏鲜明。
远处传来咚咚的敲门声。
他突然听到咚的一声，吓了一跳。
每当夜深人静时，总能听到咚咚的心跳声。
咚咚的鼓声仿佛在催促着战士们前进。