sedan chair
1
9.9
- noun
- /sɪˈdæn tʃɛr/
- Archaic
:
silla de litera
- Upon arriving at the groom's home, the sedan chair was set down at the door of the "new room" (xin fang).
Examples
-
During the wedding ceremony, the bride arrived in a beautifully adorned sedan chair to the amazement of the guests.
-
At the festival, you could see brightly decorated sedan chairs carried by bearers through the streets.
-
A short while after the dowry sets out, members of the older generation bring the bride to the sedan chair.
Academic text (1998) -
The Europeans were transported by four Chinese cookies up to the Peak on sedan chairs, which were covered to protect the passengers from the sun.
Academic text (1997) -
Before 1949, whenever the sedan chair departed, parents, brothers, and sisters wailed as they sent off the bride.
Academic text (1998) -
In 1894, she made an eight-thousand-mile journey to Korea and China where, forsaking horseback, she rode in a sedan chair.
Fiction book (2000) -
The groom's family prepares the necessary carts and sedan chair, and sends lineage members, neighbors, and friends to bring the dowry home.
Academic text (1998) -
In the free marriages of the 1950s and 1960s in Dongyang, the custom of riding in a sedan chair was discontinued, and generally the bride walked to her husband's house without fear of being reprimanded.
Academic text (1998) -
In ancient times, rich individuals were often carried in a sedan chair by servants for transportation.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A covered chair on poles carried by two or more people for one person
How Enclosed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The overall meaning is directly recoverable from the parts: 'sedan' (a covered, portable seat carried by porters) combined with 'chair' (a single seat) yields an enclosed single-person seat used for transport. There is no idiomatic shift or metaphorical extension here, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Sedan chair comes from an old word sedan meaning 'chair' and names a covered seat that was carried on poles by people. Imagine sitting in a small box lifted and moved through the street by a team of carriers — that picture is the memory hook for the modern meaning 'an enclosed chair for one person carried on poles'.