万年 (Wàn nián) — ten thousand years; a very long time; eternity (hyperbolic)

Definition

万年 (wàn nián) means "ten thousand years," used as a hyperbolic expression for an extremely long time or eternity. Mostly appears in set phrases like 遗臭万年 (infamy for ten thousand years) or plant names like 万年青 (evergreen).

noun
ten thousand yearsa very long timeeternity (hyperbolic)

Examples

  • 万年。
    Zhè kuài huà shí yǒu Wàn nián lì shǐ.
    This fossil has a history of ten thousand years.
  • ，。
    Tā zuò le huài shì, yí chòu Wàn nián.
    He did bad things and will be remembered infamously for ten thousand years.
  • ，。
    Zhè zhǒng zhí wù jiào Wàn nián qīng, sì jì cháng lǜ.
    This plant is called evergreen, green all year round.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

万wànten thousand
年niányear

万 'ten thousand' and 年 'years' combine to suggest an extremely long, almost endless time.

Characters in this word

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 →

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
禾禾héwheat; grain
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén年nián
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

年 pairs 禾 (grain) with 人, which gives the sound. Its original meaning was harvest, and it later came to mean a year.

Open 年 →

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