哈马斯 (Hā mǎ sī) — Hamas (Palestinian political and militant organ…

Definition

noun

Hamas (Palestinian political and militant organization)

哈马斯。
Hā mǎ sī Kòng zhì zhe jiā shā dì dài de dà bù fen dì qū.
Hamas controls most of the Gaza Strip.
哈马斯。
Guó jì shè huì duì Hā mǎ sī de jūn shì xíng dòng biǎo shì guān zhù.
The international community expressed concern over Hamas's military operations.
哈马斯。
Yì xiē guó jiā bù chéng rèn Hā mǎ sī de hé fǎ dì wèi.
Some countries do not recognize Hamas's legitimate status.

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.

“哈马斯” transliterates the foreign name Hamas; the characters only represent its sounds.

Sound-only characters

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

口合哈

Meaning part形符xíngfú

口口kǒumouth

Sound part声符shēngfú

合

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

哈 uses 口 (mouth) to show a mouth-related idea, and 合 as a sound part. The shape of 合 may look like two open mouths, but that is likely by chance.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 馬; 马 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 馬 shows a horse with its head facing left, a flowing mane, and two legs standing vertically.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.