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胡同 (hú tòng) — lane, alley (especially the historic residential laneways found in Beijing)

Definition

A hutong is a narrow lane or alley, usually associated with old Beijing neighborhoods. It is more culturally specific than 巷, which is a general word for any lane.

noun
lanealley (especially the historic residential laneways found in Beijing)
Measure word · 条

Examples

  • 胡同。
    Běi jīng yǒu hěn duō yǒu míng de lǎo hú tòng.
    Beijing has many famous old hutongs.
  • 胡同。
    Wǒ men yán zhe nà tiáo hú tòng yì zhí zǒu dào jìn tóu.
    We walked along that alley all the way to the end.
  • 胡同。
    Zhè tiáo hú tòng lǐ yǒu yí gè yǒu qù de kā fēi guǎn.
    There is an interesting café in this hutong.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

胡hú
同tóng

The characters 胡同 only work together for a narrow lane; neither one carries that meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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
⺼Written in full as肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
古
古gǔ胡hú
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

胡 combines 古, which points to its sound, with ⺼ (肉), meaning meat or flesh.

Open 胡 →

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

同 originally drew a pipe. It is the old form of 筒.

Open 同 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5HSK 2.0 Level 5China — PlacesCity & Urban

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