厅 (tīng) — hall; large room (for gatherings or events); living room; main room in a house or apartment; government department; office (as part of a compound)
Definition
厅 is a bound morpheme: in compounds it means 'hall' (大会厅), 'living/main room' (客厅), or a government department (教育厅). Rarely used alone — almost always part of a 2-character word.
bound form
halllarge room (for gatherings or events)living roommain room in a house or apartmentgovernment departmentoffice (as part of a compound)
Examples
- 。Zhè ge dà tīng kě yǐ zuò yì bǎi rén.This hall can seat one hundred people.
- ，。Wǒ jiā de kè tīng hěn dà, yǒu sān shí píng fāng mǐ.My home's living room is very big, thirty square meters.
- 。Wǒ men zài cān tīng chī wǎn fàn.We eat dinner in the dining room.
Origin
Sound + meaning六书liùshū
形声xíngshēngMost 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 廳; 厅 is its simplified writing.
Sound part声符shēngfú
聽
聽tīng廳tīng
Same sound today
The traditional form 廳 pairs 广 (house) with 聽, which gives the sound; the simplified 厅 is a shorthand and its parts are not the original ones.
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