中年人 (zhōng nián rén) — middle-aged person

Definition

noun

middle-aged person

Measure word · 个

中年人，。
Tā shì yí wèi zhōng nián rén, gōng zuò hěn máng.
He is a middle-aged person and is very busy with work.
中年人。
Hěn duō zhōng nián rén kāi shǐ zhù zhòng shēn tǐ jiàn kāng.
Many middle-aged people start paying attention to their physical health.
中年人。
Zhè wèi zhōng nián rén zài shì yè shàng qǔ dé le hěn dà chéng gōng.
This middle-aged person has achieved great success in their career.

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.

中年middle age

偏正Modifier + head

The 中年 sense of middle years with 人 names someone in middle age.

Characters in this word

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

The original picture showed a flagpole with a drum in the middle, set up in the center of a field.

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.

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Appears in