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相会 (xiāng huì) — to meet (each other); to get together

Definition

相会 means two sides deliberately come together — a more formal/literary word for 'to meet' or 'to get together', usually by prior arrangement. Contrast with 见面 (jiànmiàn), the everyday casual 'to meet'.

verb
to meet (each other)to get together

Examples

  • 相会。
    Duō nián bú jiàn de lǎo péng you zhōng yú xiāng huì le.
    Old friends who hadn't seen each other for years finally met.
  • 相会。
    Wǒ men yuē dìng zài gōng yuán de mén kǒu xiāng huì.
    We agreed to meet at the park entrance.
  • ，相会。
    Měi nián chūn jié, quán jiā rén dōu yào xiāng huì yí cì.
    Every Spring Festival, the whole family gets together once.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

相xiāngeach other/mutually
会huìmeet

相 means each other or mutually, and 会 means to meet; together they mean to meet one another.

Characters in this word

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

In 相, 目 is an eye and 木 is a tree, showing an eye looking at a tree; this originally meant “to observe.”

Open 相 →

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 會; 会 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
合合héto meet
Sound part声符shēngfú
𡆧
𡆧𡆧會huì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

Traditional 會 pairs 合 (to meet) with 𡆧, an original form for ironware, to give the sound. The simplified 会 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the original parts.

Open 会 →
Appears in
Friends & Social

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