大队人马 (dà duì rén mǎ) — large group of people; huge crowd (originally military formation)

Definition

A chengyu-like idiom for a 'large group of people on the move', originally a military formation but now used for any big crowd. Tone is literary and slightly dramatic.

idiom
large group of peoplehuge crowd (originally military formation)

Examples

  • 大队人马。
    Cān jiā zhè cì huó dòng de dà duì rén mǎ zhēn bù shǎo.
    There are quite a lot of people participating in this event.
  • 大队人马。
    Tā men dài zhe dà duì rén mǎ lái dào le zhè ge chéng shì.
    They brought a large group of people to this city.
  • 大队人马，。
    dà duì rén mǎ Cóng guǎng chǎng zǒu guò, chǎng miàn fēi cháng zhuàng guān.
    A huge crowd walked across the square, and the scene was magnificent.

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.

大队large unit
大dàlarge队duìunit
偏正Modifier + head
人马people and horses
人rénpeople马mǎhorses
联合Side by side

A 大 队 of 人 and 马, a large group of people and horses.

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 →

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 隊; 队 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
阜阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
㒸
㒸㒸隊duì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 隊 has 阜 as the meaning part and 㒸 as the sound part.

Open 队 →

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →

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.

Open 马 →

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