几内亚 (Jī nèi yà) — Guinea (country)

Definition

noun
Guinea (country)

Examples

  • 几内亚。
    Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Jī nèi yà lǚ yóu.
    I want to travel to Guinea next year.
  • 几内亚。
    Jī nèi yà Shì fēi zhōu xī bù de yí gè guó jiā.
    Guinea is a country in West Africa.
  • 几内亚。
    Jī nèi yà De shǒu dū shì kē nà kè lǐ.
    The capital of Guinea is Conakry.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

几jǐ
内nèi
亚yà

The characters only spell the foreign name Guinea; none carries its own meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 幾; 几 is its simplified writing.

  • 𢆶𢆶𢆶silk threads; little things
  • 戍戍shùto guard against

The traditional form 幾 puts 𢆶 (silk threads; little things) and 戍 (to guard against) together to show watching over the fine details; the simplified 几 is a later abbreviation.

Open 几 →

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

  • 入入rùto enter
  • 冂冂jiōnghouse

The shape shows 入 entering into 冂, a house, so it pictures bringing something indoors, giving the sense inside.

Open 内 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 亞; 亚 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 亞 likely shows an overhead view of a construction, perhaps a 亞-shaped tomb. Its later simplified form 亚 is just a shorthand.

Open 亚 →

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