纠集 (jiū jí) — to muster (people for a bad purpose); to gang up; to round up (pejorative)

Definition

纠集 is always negative — it means ganging people up for a bad or illegal purpose (riot, attack, fraud). Distinguish from 集合, which is neutral 'to assemble' or 'to gather'.

verb
to muster (people for a bad purpose)to gang upto round up (pejorative)

Examples

  • 纠集。
    Tā men jiū jí le yì qún bào tú dǎ zá shāng diàn.
    They rounded up a mob to smash and loot stores.
  • 纠集。
    Tóu mù zhèng zài jiū jí rén shǒu zhǔn bèi xí jī.
    The ringleader is mustering men for an attack.
  • 纠集。
    Jǐng fāng fā xiàn tā men jiū jí le shàng bǎi rén gǎo fēi fǎ jí huì.
    The police found they had gathered over a hundred people for an illegal assembly.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéSide by side

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

纠jiūgather/tie together
集jíassemble

纠 means to gather or tie together, and 集 means to assemble, combining to describe collecting people.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 糾; 纠 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
糹Written in full as糸mìsilk
Sound part声符shēngfú
丩
丩jiū糾jiū
Same sound today

In the traditional form 糾, 糸 (silk) was added to 丩, which already stood for the word. The simplified 纠 is a shorthand.

Open 纠 →

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

集 pairs 隹 (bird) with 木 (tree), showing birds on a tree, hence a gathering.

Open 集 →

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