公德 (gōng dé) — public morality; civic virtue; social ethics

Definition

Moral standards for how people behave in shared public spaces (e.g. not littering, keeping quiet). Comparable to 道德, but 道德 covers personal ethics broadly while 公德 is specifically conduct in public.

noun
public moralitycivic virtuesocial ethics
Easily confused

Examples

  • 公德。
    Měi gè rén dōu yǒu wéi hù gōng dé de zé rèn.
    Everyone has the responsibility to uphold public morality.
  • 公德。
    Zài gōng gòng chǎng suǒ bǎo chí ān jìng shì yì zhǒng jī běn de gōng dé.
    Keeping quiet in public places is a basic civic virtue.
  • 公德，。
    Tā fēi cháng zhòng shì gōng dé, cóng bù suí dì rēng lā jī.
    He places great importance on public morality and never litters.

Origin

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
彳彳chìroad
Sound part声符shēngfú
惪
惪dé德dé
Same sound today

德 combines 彳, a road, with 惪, a component meaning virtue that also supplies the sound.

Open 德 →

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