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达尔文 (Dá ěr wén) — Darwin (Charles Darwin, naturalist and evolutionary biologist)

Definition

noun
Darwin (Charles Darwin, naturalist and evolutionary biologist)

Examples

  • 达尔文。
    Dá ěr wén De jìn huà lùn duì xiàn dài kē xué chǎn shēng le shēn yuǎn yǐng xiǎng.
    Darwin's theory of evolution had a profound impact on modern science.
  • 达尔文。
    Wǒ zuì jìn zài dú yì běn guān yú Dá ěr wén de zhuàn jì.
    I'm currently reading a biography of Darwin.
  • 达尔文。
    Dá ěr wén Tí chū de zì rán xuǎn zé lǐ lùn zhì jīn réng yǒu zhòng yào dì wèi.
    The theory of natural selection proposed by Darwin still holds an important position today.

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.

达dá
尔ěr
文wén

The characters only spell the foreign name and carry no meaning of their own 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
辶Written in full as辵chuò
Sound part声符shēngfú
大
大dà达dá
Same sound today

This form 达 pairs 辶 (written in full as 辵) with 大 as a sound component.

Open 达 →

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The current form 文 shows a man with head, arms, legs, and chest; the tattoo marks on the chest are no longer drawn.

Open 文 →
Appears in
Biology

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