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阉割 (yān gē) — to emasculate, to strip of essential content (used figuratively)

Definition

Literal sense: to castrate / emasculate (remove male animal's reproductive organs). Far more commonly used figuratively in HSK 7 contexts to mean 'strip a text, theory, or report of its essential content or force'.

verb
to emasculateto strip of essential content (used figuratively)

Examples

  • 阉割。
    Zhè piān lùn wén de nèi róng bèi yán zhòng yān gē le.
    The content of this paper has been severely emasculated.
  • 阉割。
    Zhèng fǔ shěn chá jī gòu yān gē le xīn wén bào dào de hé xīn guān diǎn.
    The government censorship agency emasculated the core viewpoints of the news reports.
  • 阉割，。
    Tā men shì tú yān gē zhè ge lǐ lùn, shǐ tā shī qù pī pàn xìng.
    They tried to emasculate this theory, making it lose its critical edge.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

阉yāncastrate
割gēcut

阉 means to castrate, and 割 adds the cutting action, giving “emasculate”.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 阉 →

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
刂Written in full as刀dāo
Sound part声符shēngfú
害
害hài割gē
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

割 combines 害, which provides the sound, with 刂, the knife form of 刀, to show cutting.

Open 割 →
Appears in
Biology

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