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种田 (zhòng tián) — to farm, to till the land

Definition

种田 (zhòng tián) means 'to farm, till the land' — a literary/classical-sounding verb pairing 种 (grow/plant) with 田 (field), common in writing and historical contexts.

verb
to farmto till the land

Examples

  • 种田。
    Tā měi tiān zǎo shàng dōu qù zhòng tián.
    He goes to farm every morning.
  • 。
    Wǒ men jiā zhòng le sān nián tián.
    Our family has farmed for three years.
  • ？
    Nǐ yǐ qián zhǒng guò tián ma?
    Have you farmed before?

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

种zhǒngplant; farm
田tiánfield

种 means to plant or farm and 田 means field, so the word means to till land.

Characters in this word

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
禾禾hérice
Sound part声符shēngfú
中
中zhōng种zhǒng
Same sound today

种 pairs 禾, which shows rice or grain and fits meanings like plant and seed, with 中, which gives its sound.

Open 种 →

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

田 looks like a field divided into four sections.

Open 田 →
Appears in
Agriculture & Farming

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