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有限公司 (yǒu xiàn gōng sī) — limited liability company; corporation (Ltd./Co., Ltd.)

Definition

noun
limited liability companycorporation (Ltd./Co., Ltd.)

Examples

  • 有限公司。
    Tā zài zhè jiā yǒu xiàn gōng sī gōng zuò le wǔ nián.
    He has worked at this limited company for five years.
  • 有限公司。
    Wǒ men gōng sī qù nián zhù cè chéng wéi yǒu xiàn gōng sī.
    Our company registered as a limited company last year.
  • 有限公司。
    Zhè jiā yǒu xiàn gōng sī de gǔ dōng zuó tiān kāi le huì.
    The shareholders of this limited company had a meeting yesterday.

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.

有限limited
有yǒuhave限xiànlimit
动宾Verb + object
公司company
公gōngpublic司sīoffice
偏正Modifier + head

有限 means having a limit, and 公司 is a company, giving a limited 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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
肉肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
又
又yòu有yǒu
Same sound today

The form 有 combines 又, used for its sound, with a shape from 肉, 'meat'; the hand-holding-meat story is a folk explanation, not shown in the oldest shape.

Open 有 →

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
⻖Written in full as阜fùmound
Sound part声符shēngfú
艮
艮gèn限xiàn
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

限 pairs ⻖ (mound, written 阜) with 艮 as a sound part; the mound side gives the sense of a boundary or limit.

Open 限 →

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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