前不久 (qián bù jiǔ) — not long ago, recently

Definition

noun

not long agorecently

前不久。
Tā qián bù jiǔ cái cóng guó wài huí lái.
He only recently came back from abroad.
前不久。
qián bù jiǔ Zhè lǐ fā shēng le yì qǐ jiāo tōng shì gù.
A traffic accident happened here not long ago.
前不久。
Wǒ men qián bù jiǔ jiàn guò yí miàn.
We met not long ago.

Characters in this word

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

In the older form of 前, 止 (foot) and 舟 (boat) showed a foot on a boat moving forward; in the current 前 those parts are shortened.

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

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

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

久 likely came from a simple drawing of an arrow tip.

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