布鲁克林 (bù lǔ kè lín) — Brooklyn (borough of New York City)

Definition

noun

Brooklyn (borough of New York City)

Examples

布鲁克林，。
bù lǔ kè lín Shì niǔ yuē de yí gè qū, hěn yǒu míng.
Brooklyn is a borough of New York City, very famous.
布鲁克林。
Wǒ de péng you zhù zài bù lǔ kè lín.
My friend lives in Brooklyn.
布鲁克林。
Wǒ men dǎ suàn qù bù lǔ kè lín kàn kàn.
We plan to go check out Brooklyn.

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.

The characters 布, 鲁, 克, and 林 carry no meaning of their own here; the word spells Brooklyn.

Sound-only characters

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

巾巾jīnkerchief

Sound part声符shēngfú

父

父fù布bù

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

布 pairs 巾, a kerchief, with 父 as a sound part.

Open 布 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 魯; 鲁 is its simplified writing.

魚魚yúfish
口口kǒumouth

The traditional form 魯 pairs 魚 (fish) and 口 (mouth) to show fish entering the mouth, giving the sense delicious/excellent. The simplified 鲁 is a later shorthand, not the original picture.

Open 鲁 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 克 →

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

木木林