降格 (jiàng gé) — to lower one's standards or status | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A written/formal verb meaning to lower one's standards or status, often to achieve some practical goal. The first character 降 is pronounced here as jiàng (not xiáng 'to surrender').

verb

to lower one's standards or status

Examples

，。
Tā wèi le zhuàn qián, jìng rán jiàng le gé qù zuò zì jǐ bù xǐ huan de gōng zuò.
To make money, he actually lowered his standards and took a job he didn't like.
降格。
Gōng sī wèi le shēng cún bù dé bú jiàng gé yǐ qiú.
The company had to lower its standards to survive.
，。
Tā cóng wèi jiàng guò gé, shǐ zhōng jiān chí zì jǐ de yuán zé.
He has never lowered his standards and has always stuck to his principles.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

降 means lower, and 格 means rank or grade, so the word means to lower status.

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.

阝夅降

Meaning part形符xíngfú

阝Written in full as阜fùhill, wall

Sound part声符shēngfú

夅

夅jiàng降xiáng

Same sound today

降 pairs 阝 (a hill or wall, written in full as 阜) with 夅, a sound part meaning 'to descend'; together they picture descending a hill.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

木各格

Meaning part形符xíngfú

木木mùwood

Sound part声符shēngfú

各

各gè格gé

Same sound today

格 is built from 木 (wood) on the left and 各 on the right, which gives the sound.

Appears in

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