仆人 (pú rén) — servant | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

servant

Measure word · 个

Examples

仆人。
Zhè wèi pú rén zuò shì hěn qín kuai.
This servant works very diligently.
仆人。
Yǐ qián de fù guì rén jiā dōu yǒu hěn duō pú rén.
Wealthy families in the past had many servants.
仆人。
Zhǔ rén duì tā de pú rén hěn hǎo.
The master is very good to his servants.

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.

仆púservant

仆 'servant' plus 人 'person' forms 'servant'.

Characters in this word

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

卜

卜bǔ仆pú

Same sound today

The left side 人 marks the character as related to a person, and the right side 卜 gives its sound.

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

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