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波士顿 (Bō shì dùn) — Boston

Definition

noun
Boston

Examples

  • 波士顿。
    Wǒ qù nián shǔ jià qù le Bō shì dùn.
    I went to Boston last summer.
  • 波士顿。
    Bō shì dùn Shì měi guó dōng běi bù de yí zuò chéng shì.
    Boston is a city in the northeastern United States.
  • 波士顿。
    Tā zhèng zài Bō shì dùn dà xué xué xí jīng jì.
    He is studying economics at Boston University.

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.

波bō
士shì
顿dùn

The characters 波士顿 spell the place name Boston and carry no meanings 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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
氵Written in full as水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
皮
皮pí波bō
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left side 氵 is water, and the right side 皮 gives the sound.

Open 波 →

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

The shape 士 comes from a simple drawing of a war axe. The character later came to mean a soldier, officer, or intellectual.

Open 士 →

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 頓; 顿 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yè
Sound part声符shēngfú
屯
屯tún頓dùn
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 頓 combines 屯, drawn as a kneeling person's head, with 頁, and expresses a bow or kowtow. The simplified 顿 replaces 頁 with 页.

Open 顿 →
Appears in
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