{"id":24605,"date":"2026-05-20T13:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24605"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:16:13","slug":"fire-arrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24605","title":{"rendered":"Fire Arrows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The other day the word <strong>\u706b\u7bad<\/strong> (hu\u01d2\u200bji\u00e0n) came up in my (Mandarin) Chinese lessons. It means <strong>rocket<\/strong> or literally &#8220;fire arrow&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/shengdianye\/52206437476\/in\/photolist-2nxiD1Y-28L4uP7-2uHTik-5qApEn-5JtNzH-98fH1o-gyo2R-8848Cg-2nxjZBt-887jD7-884bUM-887o6L-887m3q-884cvc-887nSA-887ogd-88496n-887nn3-887nES-887kYU-887oC5-884a9X-887kPS-887nf9-884bgk-WCx7qS-884ckX-884c3t-8849ge-FR6c5X-884ciR-887oq9-88493v-887mKo-8849o2-884cnz-884bmz-887md5-887jpL-884aoT-887oe9-887mxs-887ms7-UqvQy6-884apF-887muQ-8848VP-9VudnC-887mmQ-887jSQ\" title=\"2207\u592a\u7a7a\u4e2d\u5fc3\uff3fARRC\u706b\u7bad\u5c08\u6848\uff3f\u5c4f\u6771\u65ed\u6d77\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52206437476_35b6b849fa_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" alt=\"2207\u592a\u7a7a\u4e2d\u5fc3\uff3fARRC\u706b\u7bad\u5c08\u6848\uff3f\u5c4f\u6771\u65ed\u6d77\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I knew that the first characters meant <strong>fire<\/strong>, but wasn&#8217;t sure about the second character. Once I knew that the word meant <strong>rocket<\/strong>, I guessed that the second character meant <strong>arrow<\/strong> or something similar. I was right.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things I like about Chinese is that rather than borrowing words other languages, they often coin new words based on native roots, or borrow words from Japanese that are based on Chinese roots.<\/p>\n<p>Other examples featuring the character <strong>\u706b<\/strong> (hu\u01d2\u200b), which means fire, flame, burn, anger or rage, include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u706b\u8f66<\/strong> [\u706b\u8eca] (hu\u01d2\u200bch\u0113) = train, (lit. &#8220;fire cart \/ vehicle&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u706b\u5370<\/strong> (hu\u01d2y\u00ecn) = brand, branded mark (lit. &#8220;fire seal&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u706b\u5c71<\/strong> (hu\u01d2sh\u0101n) = volcano (lit. &#8220;fire mountain&#8221; &#8211; should not be confused with a <strong>\u5c71\u706b<\/strong> (sh\u0101nhu\u01d2) = mountain fire, wildfire<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u706b\u7b77\u5b50<\/strong> (hu\u01d2ku\u00e0izi) = fire tongs, hair curling tongs (lit. &#8220;fire chopsticks&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u706b\u77f3<\/strong> (hu\u01d2sh\u00ed) = flint (lit. &#8220;fire stone&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u706b\u836f<\/strong> (hu\u01d2y\u00e0o) = gunpowder (lit. &#8220;fire medicine&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u706b\u661f<\/strong> (hu\u01d2\u200bx\u012bng) = (the planet) Mars, spark (lit. &#8220;fire star&#8221;) &#8211; not to be confused with <strong>\u661f\u706b<\/strong> (x\u012bnghu\u01d2\u200b) = spark, meteor.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u706b\u661f\u4eba<\/strong> (hu\u01d2\u200bx\u012bngr\u00e9n) = Martian (lit. &#8220;fire star person&#8221;) &#8211; borrowed from Japanese <strong>\u706b\u661f\u4eba<\/strong> (kaseijin)<br \/>\n[<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E7%81%AB#Chinese\">source<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The character <strong>\u7bad<\/strong> (\u200bji\u00e0n) means arrow and appears in words like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u5c04\u7bad<\/strong> (sh\u00e8ji\u00e0n) = to shoot an arrow, to let loose an arrow; archery<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u5f13\u7bad<\/strong> (g\u014dngji\u00e0n) = bow and arrow<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u5f13\u7bad\u624b<\/strong> (g\u014dngji\u00e0nsh\u01d2u) = archer<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u7bad\u732a<\/strong> [\u7bad\u8c6c] (ji\u00e0nzh\u016b) = porcupine (lit. &#8220;arrow pig&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u7bad\u9c7c<\/strong> [\u7bad\u9b5a] (ji\u00e0ny\u00fa) = swordfish (lit. &#8220;arrow fish&#8221;).<br \/>\n[<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E7%AE%AD\">source<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other day the word \u706b\u7bad (hu\u01d2\u200bji\u00e0n) came up in my (Mandarin) Chinese lessons. It means rocket or literally &#8220;fire arrow&#8221;. I knew that the first characters meant fire, but wasn&#8217;t sure about the second character. Once I knew that the word meant rocket, I guessed that the second character meant arrow or something similar. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,104,10,78],"tags":[416,164,627,138,281,628,163,626],"class_list":["post-24605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinese","category-english","category-language","category-words-and-phrases","tag-chinese","tag-english","tag-fire-arrow","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-rocket","tag-words","tag-626"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24605"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24613,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24605\/revisions\/24613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}