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公仆 (gōng pú) — public servant (government official serving the people, with ideological overtones)

Definition

Literally 'public servant' (公 = public, 仆 = servant), used for government officials in official, often political/ideological contexts, especially the ideal of serving the people. More formal and rhetorical than everyday 公务员.

noun
public servant (government official serving the people, with ideological overtones)
Measure word · 个, 位

Examples

  • 公仆。
    Měi yí wèi gōng pú dōu yīng gāi bǎ rén mín fàng zài dì yī wèi.
    Every public servant should put the people first.
  • 公仆，。
    Zhè wèi gōng pú gōng zuò fēi cháng rèn zhēn, shēn shòu qún zhòng ài dài.
    This public servant works very diligently and is deeply loved by the masses.
  • 公仆，。
    Zuò yì míng hé gé de gōng pú, bì xū lián jié fèng gōng.
    To be a qualified public servant, one must be honest and devoted to public duty.

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.

公gōngpublic
仆púservant

公 means public and 仆 means servant, so the word refers to someone serving the public.

Characters in this word

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

One theory sees 公 as a picture of a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed jar.

Open 公 →

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
人人rén
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.

Open 仆 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Government & PoliticsProfessions & Jobs

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