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员工 (yuán gōng) — staff; personnel; employee

Definition

员工 refers to staff of a company or organization, used broadly for both white- and blue-collar workers. Compare 职员 (office staff only) and 工人 (manual/industrial worker).

noun
staffpersonnelemployee
Measure word · 名

Examples

  • 员工。
    Wǒ men gōng sī yǒu yì bǎi duō míng yuán gōng.
    Our company has over a hundred employees.
  • 员工。
    Gōng sī wèi yuán gōng tí gōng miǎn fèi wǔ cān.
    The company provides free lunch for its staff.
  • 员工。
    Suǒ yǒu yuán gōng měi gè yuè cān jiā yí cì péi xùn.
    All employees attend training once a month.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

员yuánstaff member
工gōngworker

员 (staff member) and 工 (worker) together give personnel.

Characters in this word

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 員; 员 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
鼎鼎dǐngding
Sound part声符shēngfú
〇
〇líng員yuán
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In the traditional form 員, 〇 supplies the sound and 鼎 supplies the meaning; the simplified 员 is a shortened form.

Open 员 →

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Open 工 →
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