富士通 (Fù shì tōng) — Fujitsu (Japanese multinational IT equipment an…

Definition

noun

Fujitsu (Japanese multinational IT equipment and services company)

富士通。
Wǒ péng you zài Fù shì tōng zuò ruǎn jiàn gōng chéng shī.
My friend works at Fujitsu as a software engineer.
富士通。
Zhè tái diàn nǎo shì Fù shì tōng shēng chǎn de zuì xīn kuǎn.
This computer is the latest model produced by Fujitsu.
富士通。
Fù shì tōng De fú wù qì zài shì chǎng shàng kǒu bēi hěn hǎo.
Fujitsu's servers have a very good reputation in the market.

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.

The characters 富士通 are used here to spell the foreign name Fujitsu, not to describe a rich scholar passing through.

Sound-only characters

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

宀畐富

Meaning part形符xíngfú

宀宀mián

Sound part声符shēngfú

畐

畐fú富fù

Same sound today

富 pairs 宀, a roof-shaped part, with 畐, which gives the sound fú.

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

The shape 士 comes from a simple drawing of a war axe. The character later came to mean a soldier, officer, or intellectual.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

辶甬通

Meaning part形符xíngfú

辶Written in full as辵chuò

Sound part声符shēngfú

甬

甬yǒng通tōng

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

通 pairs 辶, a part associated with movement, with 甬, which gives the sound.