牛津 (Niú jīn) — Oxford | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Oxford

Examples

牛津。
Tā céng zài Niú jīn xué xí.
He once studied at Oxford.
牛津。
Niú jīn Dà xué shì shì jiè shàng zuì zhù míng de dà xué zhī yī.
Oxford University is one of the most famous universities in the world.
牛津。
Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Niú jīn lǚ xíng.
I want to travel to Oxford next year.

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.

The characters 牛 and 津 only spell the foreign name Oxford; neither carries its usual meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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

牛 is drawn as a bull's head, with two horns and two ears.

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

水水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

盡

盡jìn津jīn

Same sound today

津 is made from 水, water, and 盡, which supplies the sound.

Appears in

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