篓 (lǒu) · basket (woven from bamboo or wicker)

Measure Word

一个篓 gè

Meanings

1 basket (woven from bamboo or wicker)

Characters

篓

lǒu

woven basket

Examples

HSK 7-9

他把废纸扔进了字纸篓。

Tā bǎ fèizhǐ rēng jìn le zìzhǐlǒu.

He tossed the scrap paper into the wastepaper basket.

HSK 7-9

渔夫背着一个鱼篓回家。

Yúfū bēi zhe yí ge yúlǒu huí jiā.

The fisherman went home with a fish creel on his back.

Tips

memory

篓 has 竹 (bamboo) on top - the radical signals what it's made of. Common compounds: 字纸篓 (wastepaper basket), 鱼篓 (fish creel), 竹篓 (bamboo basket), 油篓 (oil-storage wicker container).

Components

radical

⺮ zhú

bamboo (top radical form of 竹)

Top bamboo radical (Kangxi #118 竹 in its compressed 6-stroke top form). Anchors 篓 in the bamboo-basketry family: 篮 (basket), 筐 (square basket), 笼 (cage), 篇 (chapter - bamboo strip). Most Chinese baskets were woven from split bamboo, and the radical states the material upfront. 篓 specifically denotes a tall narrow-mouthed basket - for carrying fish, vegetables, or waste-paper (字纸篓).

phonetic

娄 lóu

star name; basket-like (here phonetic)

Bottom 娄 supplies the sound - lóu shifted to lǒu, only tone differs. 娄 also lends a faint semantic flavour: it originally meant 'hollow, empty, basket-like' (and survives in 娄子 'mess' and the star-mansion name 娄宿). Same phonetic gives 楼 (multi-storey building), 搂 (hug), 数 (count), 蝼 (mole cricket).