Sample Sentence with 長足

長足 (chōsoku: rapid or giant strides)     long + legs

彼の最近作の小説は以前のに比べて長足の進歩を示している。
Kare no saikinsaku no shōsetsu wa izen no ni kurabete chōsoku no shinpo o shimeshite iru.
His latest novel marks a great advance on his previous ones.

彼 (kare: he)
最近作 (saikinsaku: latest work, most recent work)
     most + recent + work
小説 (shōsetsu: novel, story)     small + story
以前 (izen: ago; since; before; previous)
     in the direction of + before

What a strange breakdown Halpern gave for 以!

のに (no ni)

I haven’t defined this because there’s no definition to be had. This isn’t のに (noni: although). Rather, it’s two separate words. The の is a pronoun standing in for 小説 (shōsetsu: novel). And the に is part of the expression に比べて (ni kurabete: in comparison to).

比 (kura(beru): to compare)
長足の進歩 (chōsoku no shinpo: rapid progress; strides)
     long + legs + progress (last 2 chars.)

The expression 長足の進歩 gives us a fuller way of referring to “great strides” than 長足 alone did. The last two kanji in the expression 長足の進歩 break down as to progress + steps, per Halpern. It surprises me that 歩 can mean something other than “to walk.”

示 (shime(su): to denote, show, point out, indicate)

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