荷兰 (Hé lán) — the Netherlands; Holland | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

the NetherlandsHolland

Examples

荷兰。
Míng nián wǒ dǎ suàn qù Hé lán lǚ yóu.
I plan to travel to the Netherlands next year.
荷兰。
Tā zài Hé lán liú xué le sān nián.
He studied abroad in the Netherlands for three years.
荷兰。
Hé lán Yǐ fēng chē hé yù jīn xiāng wén míng yú shì.
The Netherlands is world-famous for its windmills and tulips.

Origin

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

荷兰 spells the foreign name; the characters carry no independent 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

艸艸cǎograss; plant

Sound part声符shēngfú

何

何hé荷hé

Same sound today

荷 has 艸, the grass/plant form, to show a plant, and 何 to give the sound.

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 蘭; 兰 is its simplified writing.

艹闌蘭

Meaning part形符xíngfú

艹Written in full as艸cǎoplant

Sound part声符shēngfú

闌

闌lán蘭lán

Same sound today

In the traditional form 蘭, 艹 marks it as a plant and 闌 stands for the sound; the simplified 兰 is a later shorthand, not the original parts.

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