总罢工 (zǒng bà gōng) — general strike

Definition

noun
general strike
Measure word · 次

Examples

  • 总罢工。
    Gōng rén men jué dìng jǔ xíng zǒng bà gōng.
    The workers decided to hold a general strike.
  • 总罢工。
    Zhè cì zǒng bà gōng yǐng xiǎng le zhěng gè chéng shì de jiāo tōng.
    This general strike affected the entire city's transportation.
  • 总罢工，。
    zǒng bà gōng Chí xù le sān tiān, zuì zhōng dá chéng le xié yì.
    The general strike lasted three days and finally reached an agreement.

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
罢工strike
罢bàstop工gōngwork
动宾Verb + object

总 gives whole or general, while 罢 means stop and 工 means work, forming a general strike.

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 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 罷; 罢 is its simplified writing.

The story is about the traditional form 罷: 网 (a net) and 能 are placed together to show catching a bear with a net. The simplified 罢 is a later abbreviation.

Open 罢 →

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Open 工 →

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