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圣地亚哥 (Shèng dì yà gē) — San Diego

Definition

noun
San Diego

Examples

  • 圣地亚哥。
    Wǒ men dǎ suàn míng nián qù Shèng dì yà gē lǚ yóu.
    We plan to travel to San Diego next year.
  • 圣地亚哥。
    Shèng dì yà gē De tiān qì fēi cháng shū fu.
    The weather in San Diego is very pleasant.
  • 圣地亚哥。
    Tā zài Shèng dì yà gē zhù guò yì nián.
    He lived in San Diego for a year.

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.

圣shèng
地dì
亚yà
哥gē

The characters only spell the foreign place name San Diego; 圣, 地, 亚, and 哥 carry no independent meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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 聖; 圣 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
耳耳ěrear
Sound part声符shēngfú
呈
呈chéng聖shèng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 聖 puts 耳 (ear) beside 呈, which gives the sound; the simplified 圣 is a shorthand, and its parts are not the historical parts.

Open 圣 →

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
土土tǔearth
Sound part声符shēngfú
也
也yě地dì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

地 is built from 土 (earth) and 也, which gives its sound.

Open 地 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 亞; 亚 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 亞 likely shows an overhead view of a construction, perhaps a 亞-shaped tomb. Its later simplified form 亚 is just a shorthand.

Open 亚 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 哥 →
Appears in
City & Urban

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