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下地 (xià de) — to go to work in the fields; to leave a sickbed (get up after illness)

Definition

Two distinct uses of the same verb: 1) farmers going out to work in the fields; 2) a patient finally getting out of bed after illness. Sense 1 is concrete, sense 2 is a set phrase meaning recovery.

verb
to go to work in the fieldsto leave a sickbed (get up after illness)

Examples

  • 。
    Tā xià guò yí cì dì jiù lèi dé bù xíng le.
    He went to the fields once and was exhausted.
  • ，下地。
    Tā bìng le yí gè yuè, jīn tiān zhōng yú néng xià de le.
    He was sick for a month, and today he can finally leave his sickbed.
  • 下地。
    Nóng mín men yí dà zǎo jiù xià de le.
    The farmers went to the fields early in the morning.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

下xiàgo down
地dìfield

下 means to go down, and 地 is the ground or field one goes to.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

下 is drawn as a short horizontal line below a long curved line.

Open 下 →

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
土土tǔearth
Sound part声符shēngfú
也
也yě地dì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

地 is built from 土 (earth) and 也, which gives its sound.

Open 地 →
Appears in
Agriculture & Farming

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