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伪装 (wěi zhuāng) — (verb) to disguise oneself as, to pretend to be something else; (noun) disguise, camouflage

Definition

伪装 covers both the act of disguising (verb) and the disguise itself (noun), including military camouflage. Stronger and more thorough than 假装 (just 'pretend'), and more about physical concealment than 冒充 (impersonating a specific person).

verb
to disguise oneself asto pretend to be something else
noun
disguisecamouflage

Examples

  • 伪装。
    Tā wěi zhuāng chéng yóu kè jìn rù le dà lóu.
    He disguised himself as a tourist and entered the building.
  • 伪装。
    Shì bīng men yòng shù yè zuò wěi zhuāng.
    The soldiers used leaves as camouflage.
  • 伪装。
    Tā de shàn liáng zhǐ shì yì zhǒng wěi zhuāng.
    His kindness was just a disguise.

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.

伪wěifalse
装zhuāngdress; pretend

伪 means false and 装 means to dress or pretend, together meaning a false appearance.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 偽; 伪 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
為
為wéi偽wěi
Same sound today

The modern 伪 comes from the traditional form 偽, where 亻 (man) marks the idea as about a person and 為 gives the sound and means “to make”; together they originally meant “artificial”.

Open 伪 →

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 裝; 装 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
衣衣yīclothes
Sound part声符shēngfú
壯
壯zhuàng裝zhuāng
Same sound today

The traditional form 裝 pairs 衣 (clothes) with 壯 as a sound part; this story is about 裝, not the simplified 装.

Open 装 →
Appears in
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