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总公司 (zǒng gōng sī) — head office (of a corporation); controlling corporation; parent company

Definition

The main company that controls its branches (分公司): its central office AND the corporate entity itself. Total opposite of 分公司 in the parent–branch relationship.

noun
head office (of a corporation)controlling corporationparent company
Measure word · 家

Examples

  • 总公司，。
    zǒng gōng sī Zài shàng hǎi, fēn gōng sī zài běi jīng.
    The head office is in Shanghai, and the branch is in Beijing.
  • 总公司。
    Tā zài zǒng gōng sī gōng zuò le wǔ nián.
    He has worked at the head office for five years.
  • 总公司。
    zǒng gōng sī Jué dìng guān bì nà jiā kuī sǔn de fēn gōng sī.
    The parent company decided to close that loss-making branch.

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.

总zǒnggeneral or main
公司company
公gōngpublic司sīoffice
偏正Modifier + head

总 means general or main, while 公司 denotes a corporate organization; together it is the main company.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 總; 总 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
糸糸mìrope
Sound part声符shēngfú
悤
悤cōng總zǒng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 總 has 糸, a rope, and 悤 as a sound part; the rope part is for binding together. This account is for 總, not for 总.

Open 总 →

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

One theory sees 公 as a picture of a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed jar.

Open 公 →

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

The evidence is inconclusive: one suggestion sees 司 as a mouth giving orders beside a mark of authority, another reads that mark as a hand, and another sees it as a reversed older form.

Open 司 →
Appears in
Business & Commerce

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