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人头 (rén tóu) — number of people; headcount; social connections; network of acquaintances; moral quality; character (of a person)

Definition

人头 has three distinct senses: a headcount ('按人头算'), one's social network ('人头熟'), and a person's moral character. The character-sense is colloquial; 品德 is the formal equivalent.

noun
number of peopleheadcountsocial connectionsnetwork of acquaintancesmoral qualitycharacter (of a person)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 人头。
    Zhè cì huó dòng xū yào tǒng jì rén tóu.
    This event needs to count the number of people.
  • 人头。
    Tā zài zhè ge chéng shì rén tóu hěn shú.
    He knows a lot of people in this city.
  • ，。
    Tā zhè ge rén rén tóu jí cì, méi rén yuàn yì hé tā hé zuò.
    This person has very poor character; no one wants to work with him.

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.

人rénperson
头tóuhead

人 means person and 头 means head; together they refer to heads counted as people or a person's head.

Characters in this word

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.

Open 人 →

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 頭; 头 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yèhead
Sound part声符shēngfú
豆
豆dòu頭tóu
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 頭 shows 頁, meaning head, beside 豆 as a sound component; the simplified 头 is a later shorthand.

Open 头 →
Appears in
People (General)

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