开荒 (kāi huāng) — to reclaim wasteland; to open up uncultivated land

Definition

Verb meaning to reclaim or break in wasteland for farming. A separable verb — you can split it (开了一片荒); the object 荒 is short for 荒地 ('wasteland').

verb
to reclaim wastelandto open up uncultivated land

Examples

  • 开荒。
    Nóng mín men zhèng zài kāi huāng.
    The farmers are reclaiming wasteland.
  • ，。
    Tā men qù nián kāi le yí piàn huāng, jīn nián zhǒng shàng le zhuāng jia.
    They reclaimed a piece of wasteland last year and planted crops this year.
  • 开荒。
    kāi huāng Xū yào hěn duō láo dòng lì hé shí jiān.
    Reclaiming wasteland requires a lot of labor and time.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

开kāiopen
荒huānguncultivated land

开 means open, and 荒 refers to uncultivated land, so it means reclaiming wild land.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 開; 开 is its simplified writing.

  • 門門méndoor
  • 一一yīlatch and/or wooden pole that shuts a door
  • 廾廾gǒnga pair of hands

The traditional form 開 shows 廾, a pair of hands, and 一, a latch or pole, inside 門, a door: hands opening a latched door. The simplified 开 is a shorthand form, so its parts are not the original pieces.

Open 开 →

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
艹Written in full as艸cǎograss, plant
Sound part声符shēngfú
巟
巟huāng荒huāng
Same sound today

荒 is built from 艹 (grass, plant) and 巟, with 巟 giving the sound huāng.

Open 荒 →

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