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老大哥 (lǎo dà gē) — Big Brother (authoritarian figure or system, from Orwell's 1984); elder brother (respectful term for a senior male, less common in modern usage)

Definition

Most often refers to the authoritarian 'Big Brother' from Orwell's 1984, symbolizing surveillance and total control. The literal sense 'elder brother' is rare in modern Chinese.

noun
Big Brother (authoritarian figure or system, from Orwell's 1984)elder brother (respectful term for a senior male, less common in modern usage)

Examples

  • ，老大哥。
    Zài zhè bù xiǎo shuō lǐ, lǎo dà gē xiàng zhēng zhe wú chù bú zài de jiān kòng.
    In this novel, Big Brother symbolizes ubiquitous surveillance.
  • 老大哥。
    Hěn duō rén dān xīn lǎo dà gē yí yàng de zhèng quán huì qīn fàn gè rén zì yóu.
    Many people worry that a Big Brother-like regime will infringe on personal freedom.
  • ，老大哥，。
    Zài wǒ men cūn zi lǐ, dà jiā dōu jiào tā lǎo dà gē, yīn wèi tā nián jì zuì dà.
    In our village, everyone calls him Big Brother because he is oldest.

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.

老lǎoold/senior
大哥big brother
大dàbig/eldest哥gēolder brother
偏正Modifier + head

The senior sense of 老 combines with 大哥, 'big brother', to form a respectful term for an elder brother, also used for Big Brother.

Characters in this word

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

The shape 老 combines 人 (man), 毛 (hair), and 匕 (cane), showing a man with long hair leaning on a cane.

Open 老 →

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

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 哥 →
Appears in
Family & Kinship

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