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商业街 (shāng yè jiē) — commercial street, shopping street

Definition

noun
commercial streetshopping street
Measure word · 条

Examples

  • 商业街。
    Zhè tiáo shāng yè jiē shì chéng shì zuì rè nao de dì fāng.
    This commercial street is the liveliest place in the city.
  • 商业街。
    Zhōu mò wǒ men jīng cháng qù shāng yè jiē guàng jiē.
    We often go shopping on the commercial street on weekends.
  • 商业街。
    shāng yè jiē Shàng yǒu xǔ duō shāng diàn hé cān guǎn.
    There are many shops and restaurants on the commercial street.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

商业business
商shāngbusiness业yèoccupation
联合Coordinate
街jiēstreet

商 and 业 combine as business, and 街 is a street, giving a street of shops.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 商 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 業; 业 is its simplified writing.

  • 丵丵zhuóchisel
  • 大大dàperson; big

The traditional 業 is explained as a picture of a beam from which bells and chimes hang, or as a person lifting that beam. The simplified 业 is a shorthand, not the original shape.

Open 业 →

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
行行xíng
Sound part声符shēngfú
圭
圭guī街jiē
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

街 combines 行 and 圭: 行 is the meaning part, and 圭 is the sound part. Originally, 圭 drew a pair of ritual axes, not earth.

Open 街 →
Appears in
Shopping & Errands

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