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苟同 (gǒu tóng) — to agree without careful consideration, to readily concur

Definition

苟同 means to go along with an opinion too easily, without thinking it through. It is almost always used in negation (不敢苟同, 不能苟同) — rarely said as a positive statement.

verb
to agree without careful consideration, to readily concur

Examples

  • ，苟同。
    Duì yú zhè ge fāng àn, wǒ shí zài bù néng gǒu tóng.
    I really cannot agree with this plan.
  • ，苟同。
    Tā de yì jiàn tài guò suí yì, méi rén gǎn gǒu tóng.
    His opinion was too casual; no one dared to readily agree.
  • 苟同。
    Dà jiā dōu méi zǐ xì xiǎng jiù gǒu tóng le.
    Everyone agreed without thinking it through.

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.

苟gǒurashly
同tóngagree

Rashly 苟 agreeing 同 means agree without careful thought.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
艹Written in full as艸cǎo
Sound part声符shēngfú
句
句jù苟gǒu
Same sound today

The top 艹 in 苟 relates to plants, and the bottom 句 gives the pronunciation. The original sense was a kind of grass.

Open 苟 →

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
Conflict & Agreement

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