张灯结彩
zhāng dēng jié cǎi · HSK 7
to be decorated with lanterns and colored banners (idiom)
🏮🎊 张灯 = hang lanterns + 结彩 = tie colored silk
Four parts: 张 stretch/hang, 灯 lamp, 结 knot/tie, 彩 colored silk. Literally hanging lamps and tying colored banners — the festive decoration of a celebration or holiday.
张 — bow 弓 + long 长 (phonetic)
张 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 弓 (bow) gives the meaning, originally referring to stringing or drawing a bow. The right side 长 supplies the sound. From 'draw a bow' it extended to 'stretch, open, spread,' and is now also a very common surname.
灯 — fire radical 火 + ding 丁 (phonetic)
灯 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 火 'fire' gives the meaning (lamps once burned oil or flame), while 丁 hints at the sound. It is the simplified form of the traditional 燈, which used 登 as the phonetic. Today it means 'lamp' or 'light'.
结 — silk radical 糸 + lucky 吉 (phonetic)
结 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 糸 on the left signals the meaning, since the original sense was tying threads or cords into knots. The right side 吉 (jí) provides the sound. From the literal 'knot' it extended to figurative senses like 'bind,' 'conclude,' or 'form (a bond).'