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万宝路 (Wàn bǎo lù) — Marlboro (cigarette brand)

Definition

noun
Marlboro (cigarette brand)

Examples

  • 万宝路。
    Tā xǐ huan chōu Wàn bǎo lù.
    He likes smoking Marlboro.
  • 万宝路。
    Wǒ mǎi le yì bāo Wàn bǎo lù.
    I bought a pack of Marlboro.
  • 万宝路。
    Zhè zhǒng Wàn bǎo lù de wèi dào bú cuò.
    This kind of Marlboro tastes good.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

万wàn
宝bǎo
路lù

In 万宝路, the characters 万, 宝, and 路 carry no meaning here; they only spell the foreign brand name.

Sound-only characters

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 萬; 万 is its simplified writing.

For 万, the form 萬 was originally a picture of a scorpion, later borrowed for its sound to write 'ten thousand'; the scorpion picture is unrelated to that number.

Open 万 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 寶; 宝 is its simplified writing.

  • 宀宀miánhouse
  • 琡琡chùjade
  • 貝貝bèicowry

The traditional form 寶 shows 宀 (house), 琡 (jade), and 貝 (cowry), drawn together as treasures in a house.

Open 宝 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
足足zú
Sound part声符shēngfú
各
各gè路lù
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

路 combines 足, a foot, with 各, which supplies the sound.

Open 路 →
Appears in
Alcohol & Tobacco

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