换工 (huàn gōng) — to exchange labor (work for work, not for money)

Definition

换工 is a rural/folk term for neighbors swapping labor — working for each other in turn, not paying money. Contrast with 打工 (paid wage labor for an employer).

verb
to exchange labor (work for work, not for money)

Examples

  • ，换工。
    Nóng máng shí, lín jū men cháng cháng hù xiāng huàn gōng.
    During the busy farming season, neighbors often exchange labor with each other.
  • ，。
    Wǒ men gēn zhāng jiā huàn le liǎng tiān gōng, bāng tā men shōu mài zi.
    We exchanged two days of labor with the Zhang family to help them harvest wheat.
  • 换工。
    Zhè zhǒng huàn gōng fāng shì zài nóng cūn hěn cháng jiàn.
    This kind of labor exchange is very common in rural areas.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

换huànexchange
工gōnglabor

换 (exchange) and 工 (labor) combine to mean exchanging work.

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 換; 换 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
手手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
奐
奐huàn換huàn
Same sound today

For the traditional form 換, 手 is the hand part and 奐 gives the sound; this note is about 換, not the simplified 换.

Open 换 →

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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