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节育 (jié yù) — to practice birth control, to use contraception

Definition

节育 (jiéyù) means 'to practice birth control' — focuses on the deliberate act of limiting births, broader than 避孕 (bìyùn), which names specific contraceptive methods.

verb
to practice birth controlto use contraception

Examples

  • 节育。
    Hěn duō fū qī xuǎn zé jié yù lái guī huà jiā tíng.
    Many couples choose birth control to plan their families.
  • 。
    Tā jié hūn hòu yì zhí jié zhe yù.
    She has been using birth control since she got married.
  • 节育，。
    Zhèng fǔ tuī guǎng jié yù zhī shi, bāng zhù nián qīng rén liǎo jiě bì yùn fāng fǎ.
    The government promotes birth control knowledge to help young people understand contraceptive methods.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

节jiérestrain
育yùchildbirth

节 means restrain and 育 means childbirth, so it describes controlling births.

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 節; 节 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
⺮Written in full as竹zhúbamboo
Sound part声符shēngfú
即
即jí節jié
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 節 pairs ⺮ (bamboo) with 即, which gives the sound; the bamboo part points to a node of bamboo. The simplified 节 is a later abbreviation.

Open 节 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 育 →
Appears in
Medicine & Treatment

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