大明 (dà míng) — Ming dynasty (short form); great brightness (literary); given name (Dàmíng)

Definition

In history texts, 大明 is the short name of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644); 大明王朝 = 'the Great Ming dynasty.' The other senses (a personal name, a literary 'great brightness') are rare in modern use.

noun
Ming dynasty (short form)great brightness (literary)given name (Dàmíng)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 大明。
    dà míng Wáng cháo tǒng zhì le zhōng guó jìn sān bǎi nián.
    The Great Ming dynasty ruled China for nearly three hundred years.
  • 大明，。
    Tā jiào dà míng, shì běi jīng dà xué de jiào shòu.
    His name is Daming, and he is a professor at Peking University.
  • ，大明，。
    Rì chū dōng fāng, guāng máng dà míng, zhào liàng le dà dì.
    The sun rises in the east, its great brightness illuminating the earth.

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.

大dàgreat
明míngbright/Ming

“大” conveys greatness, and “明” supplies the dynasty name or brightness.

Characters in this word

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

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

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

明 combines 日 (sun) and 月 (moon), showing the sun just rising while the moon has not yet set, or two bright objects in the sky, to express brightness.

Open 明 →

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