尼姑 (ní gū) — Buddhist nun | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Buddhist nun

Measure word · 位

Examples

尼姑。
Nà zuò miào lǐ zhù zhe sān wèi ní gū.
Three Buddhist nuns live in that temple.
尼姑。
Zhè wèi ní gū měi tiān zǎo chén wǔ diǎn qǐ chuáng niàn jīng.
This Buddhist nun gets up at five every morning to chant sutras.
尼姑，。
Tā chū jiā dàng le ní gū, guò shàng le qīng xiū de shēng huó.
She left home to become a Buddhist nun and lives a life of ascetic practice.

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.

尼 denotes a nun, and 姑 denotes a woman, giving a Buddhist nun.

Characters in this word

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

The shape draws one person sitting on or leaning against another person, giving the sense of stopping close to someone.

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

女古姑

Meaning part形符xíngfú

女女nǚwoman

Sound part声符shēngfú

古

古gǔ姑gū

Same sound today

The left part 女 marks it as a woman, and the right part 古 provides the sound. It is used for female relatives like an aunt or mother-in-law.

Appears in

Religion & Belief

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