丹阳 (Dān yáng) — Danyang (city in Jiangsu, China)

Definition

noun
Danyang (city in Jiangsu, China)

Examples

  • 丹阳。
    Dān yáng Yǐ yǎn jìng chǎn yè wén míng.
    Danyang is famous for its eyewear industry.
  • 丹阳。
    Wǒ qù nián zài Dān yáng zhù le liǎng gè yuè.
    I lived in Danyang for two months last year.
  • 丹阳。
    Cóng nán jīng dào Dān yáng zuò gāo tiě zhǐ yào bàn xiǎo shí.
    It only takes half an hour by high-speed rail from Nanjing to Danyang.

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.

丹dānDan
阳yángnorth side

丹 names the Dan water and 阳 marks its north side, giving the city name.

Characters in this word

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

The shape 丹 shows a well or mine with red cinnabar inside.

Open 丹 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 陽; 阳 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
阜阜fùhill
Sound part声符shēngfú
昜
昜yáng陽yáng
Same sound today

In the traditional form 陽, 阜 shows a hill and 昜 is the older character for the word, tied to sunshine and the sound; simplified 阳 is a later shorthand.

Open 阳 →

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