尼日尔 (Ní rì ěr) — Niger (country in West Africa)

Definition

noun
Niger (country in West Africa)

Examples

  • 尼日尔。
    Ní rì ěr Shì fēi zhōu xī bù de yí gè guó jiā.
    Niger is a country in West Africa.
  • 尼日尔，。
    Wǒ qù guò liǎng cì Ní rì ěr, nà shì yí gè hěn rè de dì fāng.
    I have been to Niger twice; it is a very hot place.
  • 尼日尔。
    Shǐ guǎn de gōng zuò rén yuán zài Ní rì ěr gōng zuò le sān nián.
    The embassy staff worked in Niger 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.

尼ní
日rì
尔ěr

The characters spell the foreign name Niger and carry no meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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.

Open 尼 →

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

日 originally drew the sun. A mark was added inside to tell it apart from similar square shapes.

Open 日 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

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