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屠杀 (tú shā) — to massacre; to slaughter

Definition

屠杀 means to massacre or slaughter a group of people on a large scale — it is violent and intentional, with strong historical/political overtones. Compared to 宰 (which targets animals or means to overcharge), 屠杀 is about killing people en masse.

verb
to massacreto slaughter

Examples

  • 屠杀。
    Lì shǐ shàng fā shēng guò duō cì dà guī mó de tú shā.
    Many large-scale massacres have occurred in history.
  • 屠杀。
    Qīn lüè zhě tú shā le zhěng zuò chéng shì de jū mín.
    The invaders massacred the residents of the entire city.
  • 屠杀。
    Zhè zhǒng cán rěn de tú shā xíng wéi zāo dào le quán shì jiè de qiǎn zé.
    This cruel act of massacre was condemned by the whole world.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

屠túslaughter
杀shākill

屠 and 杀 both mean killing, so the word intensifies the idea of mass slaughter.

Characters in this word

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
尸尸shībody
Sound part声符shēngfú
者
者zhě屠tú
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

屠 combines 尸 (body) with 者, which gives the sound.

Open 屠 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 殺; 杀 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 殺 comes from an old drawing of a boar impaled in the head, with 人 and 又 added to show a person doing the killing; the simplified 杀 is a later abbreviation.

Open 杀 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Military & Defense5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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