冲散 (chōng sàn) — to break up, scatter, disperse (a group, crowd, or mass)

Definition

A resultative verb: an external force (wind, flood, police action) drives a group or mass apart so its members scatter. Pairs with 把 or directly takes the group as object.

verb
to break upscatterdisperse (a group, crowd, or mass)

Examples

  • 冲散。
    Dà fēng bǎ rén qún chōng sàn le.
    The strong wind scattered the crowd.
  • 冲散。
    Jǐng chá yòng gāo yā shuǐ qiāng chōng sàn le shì wēi zhě.
    The police used high-pressure water cannons to disperse the protesters.
  • 冲散。
    Hóng shuǐ chōng sàn le cūn zhuāng de fáng wū.
    The flood scattered the houses of the village.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
补充bǔchōngVerb + complement

An action followed by its result or direction.

冲chōngrush
散sànscatter

冲 carries the rushing impact, and 散 carries scattering, so it means to break up a crowd.

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 衝; 冲 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 冲 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (冲, 冲动) it is 衝; in others (冲) it is 沖.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
行行xíng
Sound part声符shēngfú
重
重zhòng衝chōng
Same sound today

The traditional form 衝 shows 重 inside 行, with 行 as the meaning part and 重 as the sound part; the simplified 冲 is a later shorthand.

Open 冲 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 林林líntrees, forest
  • 攴攴pūto knock, to tap

散 combines 林 (trees or forest) and 攴 (to knock or tap), originally showing knocking to clear vegetation, later extended to breaking up or dispersing.

Open 散 →

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