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卡萨布兰卡 (Kǎ sà bù lán kǎ) — Casablanca (city in Morocco)

Definition

noun
Casablanca (city in Morocco)

Examples

  • 卡萨布兰卡。
    Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Kǎ sà bù lán kǎ lǚ yóu.
    I want to travel to Casablanca next year.
  • 《卡萨布兰卡》。
    Jīng diǎn diàn yǐng 《Kǎ sà bù lán kǎ》 jiǎng shù le yí gè dòng rén de ài qíng gù shi.
    The classic movie 'Casablanca' tells a touching love story.
  • 卡萨布兰卡。
    Kǎ sà bù lán kǎ Shì mó luò gē zuì dà de chéng shì zhī yī.
    Casablanca is one of the largest cities in Morocco.

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.

卡kǎ
萨sà
布bù
兰lán
卡kǎ

卡萨布兰卡 spells Casablanca; the characters 卡 萨 布 兰 卡 carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

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

卡 is made from 上 (up) and 下 (down), with their horizontal lines fused, showing something squeezed between above and below.

Open 卡 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 萨 →

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
巾巾jīnkerchief
Sound part声符shēngfú
父
父fù布bù
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

布 pairs 巾, a kerchief, with 父 as a sound part.

Open 布 →

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 蘭; 兰 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
艹Written in full as艸cǎoplant
Sound part声符shēngfú
闌
闌lán蘭lán
Same sound today

In the traditional form 蘭, 艹 marks it as a plant and 闌 stands for the sound; the simplified 兰 is a later shorthand, not the original parts.

Open 兰 →

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

卡 is made from 上 (up) and 下 (down), with their horizontal lines fused, showing something squeezed between above and below.

Open 卡 →
Appears in
City & Urban

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