蹄 (tí) · hoof, pig's trotters

Measure Word

一只蹄 zhī

Meanings

1 hoof
2 pig's trotters

Characters

蹄

tí

hoof; trotter

Examples

HSK 5

红烧猪蹄是一道受欢迎的菜。

Hóngshāo zhūtí shì yí dào shòu huānyíng de cài.

Braised pig's trotters is a popular dish.

HSK 7-9

马蹄踏在石板路上发出清脆的声音。

Mǎtí tà zài shíbǎn lù shàng fāchū qīngcuì de shēngyīn.

The horse's hooves made a crisp sound on the stone-paved road.

Tips

culture

猪蹄 ('pig's trotters') is a beloved Chinese comfort food, often braised (红烧猪蹄) or stewed. It's prized for its collagen content and is believed to be good for skin.

Components

radical

足 zú

foot

Left-side foot radical: a leg with the foot drawn at the base. Carries the meaning that 蹄 is the hoof, the hard foot of cattle, horses, pigs. Indexes the character in the foot-and-step family alongside 跑 ('to run'), 跳 ('to jump'), 踩 ('to step on'), 路 ('road').

phonetic

帝 dì

emperor (here phonetic)

Right side 帝 supplies the sound: dì drifting to tí through an old phonetic series. The 'emperor' meaning is not active; 帝 is purely a sound tag. The same phonetic appears in 啼 ('to cry out'), 缔 ('to bind'), 谛 ('truth'), 滴 ('a drop'), all reading tí or dì.