市长 (shì zhǎng) — mayor | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

mayor

Measure word · 位

Examples

市长。
Zhè ge chéng shì de shì zhǎng hěn yǒu míng.
The mayor of this city is very famous.
市长。
Xīn shì zhǎng míng tiān yào kāi huì.
The new mayor will have a meeting tomorrow.
市长。
Shì mín men dōu hěn zhī chí shì zhǎng.
The citizens all support the mayor.

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.

市 means city and 长 means chief, so the word names the chief of a city.

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

兮兮xībustling

Sound part声符shēngfú

之

之zhī市shì

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The old form 市 pairs 兮, meaning bustling, with 之, the sound part.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 長; 长 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 長 pictures an old man with long hair. The simplified 长 is a later shorthand, so its strokes do not show that original picture.

Appears in

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