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血统 (xuè tǒng) — blood lineage, descent, ancestry

Definition

noun
blood lineagedescentancestry

Examples

  • 血统。
    Tā de fù qīn yǒu yīng guó xuè tǒng.
    His father has British lineage.
  • 血统。
    Zhè ge jiā zú de xuè tǒng kě yǐ zhuī sù dào jǐ bǎi nián qián.
    This family's lineage can be traced back several hundred years.
  • 血统。
    Hěn duō rén duì zì jǐ de xuè tǒng hěn gǎn xìng qù.
    Many people are very interested in their own ancestry.

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.

血xuèblood
统tǒnglineage

“血” refers to blood and “统” to a lineage, so the word means descent traced by blood.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 一一yīdrop of blood
  • 皿皿mǐncontainer

The shape shows 一, a drop of blood, inside 皿, a container, for blood held in a sacrificial vessel.

Open 血 →

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 統; 统 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
糸糸mì
Sound part声符shēngfú
充
充chōng統tǒng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 統 uses 糸 as a meaning part and 充 as a sound part; the simplified 统 is a later shorthand, so this story is about 統, not about 统's parts.

Open 统 →
Appears in
Family & Kinship

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