雅典 (Yǎ diǎn) — Athens | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Athens

Examples

雅典。
Wǒ dǎ suàn míng nián qù Yǎ diǎn lǚ yóu.
I plan to travel to Athens next year.
雅典。
Yǎ diǎn Shì xī là de shǒu dū.
Athens is the capital of Greece.
雅典。
Tā zhèng zài xiě yì běn guān yú Yǎ diǎn lì shǐ de shū.
He is writing a book about the history of Athens.

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.

The characters carry no meaning of their own here; '雅典' spells the foreign name Athens.

Sound-only characters

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

隹牙雅

Meaning part形符xíngfú

隹隹zhuīa short-tailed bird

Sound part声符shēngfú

牙

牙yá雅yǎ

Same sound today

雅 pairs 隹, a short-tailed bird, with 牙 as its sound part; the bird was a rook/crow, and the sense was extended to refined.

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

冊冊cèbooks
丌丌qítable

典 puts 冊 (books) on a 丌 (table), showing official books resting on a table.

Appears in

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