江户 (Jiāng hù) — Edo (old name of Tokyo)

Definition

noun

Edo (old name of Tokyo)

江户。
Jiāng hù Shì dōng jīng yǐ qián de míng chēng.
Edo is the former name of Tokyo.
江户。
Jiāng hù Shí qī shì rì běn lì shǐ shàng de yí gè zhòng yào shí dài.
The Edo period was an important era in Japanese history.
江户。
Tā yán jiū le hěn duō guān yú Jiāng hù de wén huà.
He studied a lot about the culture of Edo.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

江户 spells the Japanese name Edo, and the characters 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.

氵工江

Meaning part形符xíngfú

氵Written in full as水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

工

工gōng江jiāng

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

江 puts 氵, the water side, beside 工, which gives a sound; the water part points to its river meaning.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 戶; 户 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 戶 is a picture of half of a gate. The simplified 户 is a later shorthand, so its shape should not be read as the original parts.

Appears in