校长 (xiào zhǎng) — headmaster; principal; president (of a school)

Definition

校长 is the head of a school (校), not a country or a company. 总统 leads a nation and 总裁 leads a business.

noun

headmasterprincipalpresident (of a school)

Measure word · 个, 位, 名

校长。
Wǒ men xué xiào yǒu yí wèi xīn xiào zhǎng.
Our school has a new principal.
校长。
Zhè wèi xiào zhǎng měi tiān zǎo shàng dōu lái de hěn zǎo.
This principal comes very early every morning.
校长。
Xué shēng men dōu hěn xǐ huan tā men de xiào zhǎng.
The students all like their principal very much.

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 means school, 长 means chief; together they name the chief of a 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.

木交校

Meaning part形符xíngfú

木木mùtree

Sound part声符shēngfú

交

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.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 長; 长 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 長 pictures an old man with long hair. The simplified 长 is a later shorthand, so its strokes do not show that original picture.

Appears in