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华尔街 (Huá ěr jiē) — Wall Street (financial district in New York City; also used as a metonym for the US financial industry)

Definition

noun
Wall Street (financial district in New York City; also used as a metonym for the US financial industry)

Examples

  • 华尔街。
    Huá ěr jiē Shì niǔ yuē shì zhù míng de jīn róng zhōng xīn.
    Wall Street is a famous financial center in New York City.
  • 华尔街。
    Tā de gōng sī zài Huá ěr jiē shàng shì le.
    His company went public on Wall Street.
  • 华尔街。
    Huá ěr jiē De gǔ shì bō dòng yǐng xiǎng le quán qiú jīng jì.
    Stock market fluctuations on Wall Street affected the global economy.

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.

华尔Wall
华huá尔ěr
音译Transliteration
街jiēstreet

华尔 gives Wall and 街 gives street, naming Wall Street.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 華; 华 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 華 showed flowers on a plant, with stalk and leaves below. The simplified 华 is a later shorthand and not the original picture.

Open 华 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

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
行行xíng
Sound part声符shēngfú
圭
圭guī街jiē
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

街 combines 行 and 圭: 行 is the meaning part, and 圭 is the sound part. Originally, 圭 drew a pair of ritual axes, not earth.

Open 街 →
Appears in
Finance & Banking

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