自有 (zì yǒu) — to have, possess, own (formal/literary)

Definition

自有 (zìyǒu) is a formal/literary 'to have one's own', stressing that something belongs to oneself. Unlike plain 有, it foregrounds the 'one's own' sense, as in 自有安排.

verb
to havepossessown (formal/literary)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 自有。
    Tā zì yǒu bàn fǎ jiě jué zhè ge wèn tí.
    He has his own way to solve this problem.
  • 自有，。
    Zhè jiàn shì wǒ zì yǒu ān pái, nǐ bú bì dān xīn.
    I have my own arrangement for this matter; you don't need to worry.
  • 自有。
    Měi gè mín zú zì yǒu qí dú tè de wén huà chuán tǒng.
    Every nation has its own unique cultural traditions.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

自zìoneself
有yǒuhave

'自' (oneself) and '有' (have) build the idea of something being one's own.

Characters in this word

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

自 originally drew a nose. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write 自, so the picture and the meaning are unrelated.

Open 自 →

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
肉肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
又
又yòu有yǒu
Same sound today

The form 有 combines 又, used for its sound, with a shape from 肉, 'meat'; the hand-holding-meat story is a folk explanation, not shown in the oldest shape.

Open 有 →

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