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奥地利 (Aò dì lì) — Austria

Definition

noun
Austria

Examples

  • 奥地利。
    Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Aò dì lì lǚ yóu.
    I want to travel to Austria next year.
  • 奥地利。
    Aò dì lì De shǒu dū shì wéi yě nà.
    The capital of Austria is Vienna.
  • 奥地利。
    Tā zài Aò dì lì liú xué le sān nián.
    He studied abroad in Austria for three years.

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.

奥ào
地dì
利lì

The characters carry no meaning of their own here; the word spells the foreign name Austria.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 奥 →

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 →

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

利 combines 禾 (grain) and 刀 (knife), showing a knife used to cut grain.

Open 利 →
Appears in
International & Diplomacy

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