塞舌尔 (Sāi shé ěr) — Seychelles

Definition

noun
Seychelles

Examples

  • 塞舌尔。
    Sāi shé ěr Shì yìn dù yáng shàng de yí gè měi lì dǎo guó.
    Seychelles is a beautiful island country in the Indian Ocean.
  • 塞舌尔。
    Hěn duō yóu kè xǐ huan qù Sāi shé ěr dù jià.
    Many tourists like to go to Seychelles for vacation.
  • 塞舌尔，。
    Sāi shé ěr De hǎi tān fēi cháng gān jìng, hǎi shuǐ yě hěn lán.
    Seychelles' beaches are very clean, and the seawater is also very blue.

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.

塞sāi
舌shé
尔ěr

The characters carry no meaning of their own here; 塞舌尔 spells Seychelles.

Sound-only characters

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

  • 宀宀miánhouse
  • 工工gōngtwo items
  • 廾廾gǒngtwo hands

塞 combines 宀 (house), 工 (two items), and 廾 (two hands), showing hands stuffing items into a house.

Open 塞 →

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

舌 was drawn as a snake's forked tongue rising from an open mouth.

Open 舌 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

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