政要 (zhèng yào) — important political figures; government VIPs

Definition

noun
important political figuresgovernment VIPs
Measure word · 位
Easily confused

Examples

  • 政要。
    Xǔ duō zhèng yào chū xí le zhè cì huì yì.
    Many political VIPs attended this meeting.
  • 政要。
    Zhè cì fēng huì yāo qǐng le gè guó zhèng yào cān jiā.
    This summit invited political VIPs from various countries to participate.
  • 政要。
    zhèng yào Men de fā yán yǐn qǐ le guǎng fàn guān zhù.
    The speeches of the political VIPs attracted widespread attention.

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.

政zhèngpolitics
要yàoimportant

政 means politics or government, and 要 means important, so it denotes important political figures.

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
攴攴pūaction
Sound part声符shēngfú
正
正zhèng政zhèng
Same sound today

政 combines 正, which gives the sound, with 攴, an action-related part.

Open 政 →

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

要 began as a drawing of a person with both hands pointing to the waist.

Open 要 →

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