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华盛顿 (Huá shèng dùn) — Washington, D.C. (capital of the United States); George Washington (first U.S. president)

Definition

noun
WashingtonD.C. (capital of the United States)George Washington (first U.S. president)

Examples

  • 华盛顿。
    Wǒ xià ge yuè yào qù Huá shèng dùn chū chāi.
    I'm going to Washington, D.C. on a business trip next month.
  • 华盛顿。
    Huá shèng dùn Shì měi guó de dì yī rèn zǒng tǒng.
    Washington was the first president of the United States.
  • 华盛顿。
    Huá shèng dùn De yīng huā zài chūn tiān fēi cháng měi lì.
    The cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. are very beautiful in spring.

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.

华huá
盛shèng
顿dùn

华盛顿 spells the foreign name Washington; the characters only represent sounds and have no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

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 →

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
皿皿mǐn
Sound part声符shēngfú
成
成chéng盛shèng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

盛 combines 成 as a sound part with 皿 as a meaning part; the 皿 side points to a vessel, which fits meanings such as hold and fill.

Open 盛 →

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 頓; 顿 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yè
Sound part声符shēngfú
屯
屯tún頓dùn
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 頓 combines 屯, drawn as a kneeling person's head, with 頁, and expresses a bow or kowtow. The simplified 顿 replaces 頁 with 页.

Open 顿 →
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