梵蒂冈 (Fàn dì gāng) — Vatican | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Vatican

Examples

梵蒂冈。
Fàn dì gāng Shì shì jiè shàng zuì xiǎo de guó jiā.
The Vatican is the smallest country in the world.
梵蒂冈。
Qù nián wǒ qù ōu zhōu lǚ xíng shí cān guān le Fàn dì gāng.
I visited the Vatican last year when I traveled to Europe.
梵蒂冈。
Fàn dì gāng De bó wù guǎn lǐ shōu cáng zhe xǔ duō zhēn guì de yì shù pǐn.
The Vatican's museums house many precious artworks.

Origin

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

梵蒂冈 spells the foreign name Vatican; 梵, 蒂, 冈 carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

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

林凡梵

Meaning part形符xíngfú

林林línforest

Sound part声符shēngfú

凡

凡fán梵fàn

Same sound today

梵 is built from 林, a forest, and 凡, which gives the sound; the forest part shows the early meaning 'lush.'

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

艸艸cǎograss

Sound part声符shēngfú

帝

帝dì蒂dì

Same sound today

The top 艸 marks a plant, and the lower 帝 gives the sound.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in

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