老相识 (lǎo xiāng shí) — old acquaintance; old friend

Definition

noun

old acquaintanceold friend

老相识。
Tā shì wǒ duō nián de lǎo xiāng shí le.
He is a long-time old acquaintance of mine.
老相识。
Zhè xiē lǎo tóng xué dōu shì wǒ de lǎo xiāng shí.
These former classmates are all old acquaintances of mine.
老相识。
Wǒ men zài jiē shàng ǒu yù le yí gè lǎo xiāng shí.
We ran into an old acquaintance on the street.

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.

相识acquaintance

偏正Modifier + head

老 means old and 相识 means know each other, giving a long-known acquaintance.

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.

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

木目相

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

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 識; 识 is its simplified writing.

言戠識

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

戠

戠zhí識zhì

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 識 pairs 言 (say) with 戠 as a sound part; the simplified 识 is a shorthand, so its parts are not the historical parts.

Appears in