比利时 (Bǐ lì shí) — Belgium

Definition

noun
Belgium

Examples

  • 比利时。
    Bǐ lì shí De qiǎo kè lì hěn hǎo chī.
    Belgian chocolate is very delicious.
  • 比利时。
    Wǒ xiǎng qù Bǐ lì shí lǚ yóu.
    I want to travel to Belgium.
  • 比利时。
    Bǐ lì shí Shì yí gè xiǎo guó jiā.
    Belgium is a small country.

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.

比bǐ
利lì
时shí

The characters only spell the foreign name; 比, 利 and 时 carry no meaning 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.

  • 匕匕bǐ
  • 匕匕bǐ

比 is two 匕 placed side by side. Chu Wan-li treats both as sound parts, while an old reading takes the side-by-side arrangement as putting things next to each other.

Open 比 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

利 combines 禾 (grain) and 刀 (knife), showing a knife used to cut grain.

Open 利 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 時; 时 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
日日rìsun; day
Sound part声符shēngfú
之
之zhī時shí
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 時 pairs 日 (sun/day) with 之 as the part that gives the sound; the simplified 时 is not the form described.

Open 时 →

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