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校友 (xiào yǒu) — alumnus or alumna (graduate of a school)

Definition

Alumnus or alumna — a graduate of the same school, used for both the speaker and others. Pairs with 位 and often appears in contexts like 校友聚会 ('alumni gathering').

noun
alumnus or alumna (graduate of a school)
Measure word · 位

Examples

  • 校友。
    Wǒ shì zhè suǒ dà xué de xiào yǒu.
    I am an alumnus of this university.
  • 校友。
    Wǒ men xué xiào měi nián dōu jǔ bàn xiào yǒu jù huì.
    Our school holds an alumni gathering every year.
  • 校友。
    Zhè suǒ dà xué yǒu hěn duō yǒu míng de xiào yǒu.
    This university has many famous alumni.

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.

校xiàoschool
友yǒufriend

校 'school' and 友 'friend' form a friend from one's school.

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
木木mùtree
Sound part声符shēngfú
交
交jiāo校jiào
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

校 is built from 木 (tree) on the left and 交 on the right, which supplies the sound.

Open 校 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

友 is drawn as two 又, the hand form, side by side. The old explanation says two hands together mean friendship.

Open 友 →
Appears in
School & Education

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