搜罗 (sōu luó) — to collect, to gather (by searching widely); to recruit (talent, personnel)

Definition

搜罗 (sōuluó) means to gather or recruit by searching widely — collecting scattered things or talent from many places. More deliberate and wide-ranging than plain 收集, which just means to collect.

verb
to collectto gather (by searching widely)to recruit (talent, personnel)

Examples

  • 搜罗，。
    Tā sì chù sōu luó rén cái, zǔ jiàn le yì zhī yōu xiù de tuán duì.
    He scoured everywhere to recruit talent and built an excellent team.
  • 搜罗。
    Zhè jiā bó wù guǎn sōu luó le xǔ duō xī shì zhēn bǎo.
    This museum has collected many rare treasures from all over.
  • 搜罗。
    Wǒ zài jiù xiāng zi lǐ sōu luó chū yì běn lǎo xiàng cè.
    I rummaged through an old chest and pulled out a vintage photo album.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéSide by side

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

搜sōusearch
罗luógather

搜 means search and 罗 means gather, together expressing collecting by searching widely.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
扌Written in full as手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
叟
叟sǒu搜sōu
Same sound today

The left 扌 is a hand. The right 叟 gives the sound and originally pictured a hand holding a torch indoors, related to searching.

Open 搜 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 羅; 罗 is its simplified writing.

  • 网网wǎngnet
  • 維維wéibird (tied with string)

The traditional form 羅 combines 网 (net) with 維 (a bird tied with string) to show a net for catching birds; the simplified 罗 is a later abbreviation.

Open 罗 →

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