女队 (nǚ duì) — women's team; female team

Definition

noun

women's teamfemale team

Measure word · 个

Examples

女队。
nǚ duì Yíng le zhè chǎng bǐ sài.
The women's team won this match.
女队。
Tā shì nǚ duì de duì zhǎng.
She is the captain of the women's team.
女队。
nǚ duì Zài jué sài zhōng biǎo xiàn chū sè.
The women's team performed excellently in the final.

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.

女nǚfemale

队duìteam

「女」 marks the group as female, while 「队」 gives the sense of a team.

Characters in this word

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

女 shows a woman with folded arms, kneeling or standing. In the modern form the figure faces right, and the small enclosed part is what is left of one arm.

Open 女 →

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 →

Appears in