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少校 (shào xiào) — military rank: major (army/air force) or lieutenant commander (navy)

Definition

Military officer rank: major in the army/air force, lieutenant commander in the navy. Sits between 上校 (captain) and 尉 (junior officers) in the PLA hierarchy.

noun
military rank: major (army/air force) or lieutenant commander (navy)
Measure word · 位

Examples

  • 少校。
    Tā èr shí wǔ suì jiù dāng shàng le shào xiào.
    He became a major at the age of twenty-five.
  • 少校。
    Nà wèi shào xiào dài lǐng quán lián wán chéng le rèn wu.
    That major led the entire company to complete the mission.
  • 少校。
    Hǎi jūn shào xiào de jūn xián biāo zhì shì liǎng gàng yì xīng.
    The insignia for a navy lieutenant commander is two bars and one star.

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.

少shǎojunior
校xiàofield officer

少 means junior and 校 refers to an officer rank, so a junior field officer.

Characters in this word

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

The form 少 is drawn as four dots, perhaps three grains of sand, to indicate a few or a little.

Open 少 →

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
木木mùtree
Sound part声符shēngfú
交
交jiāo校jiào
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

校 is built from 木 (tree) on the left and 交 on the right, which supplies the sound.

Open 校 →
Appears in
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