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非洲 (fēi zhōu) — Africa

Definition

noun
Africa

Examples

  • 非洲。
    Wǒ cóng lái méi yǒu qù guò fēi zhōu.
    I have never been to Africa.
  • 非洲。
    fēi zhōu De qì hòu fēi cháng yán rè.
    The climate in Africa is very hot.
  • 非洲。
    Tā zhèng zài yán jiū fēi zhōu de lì shǐ.
    He is researching the history of Africa.

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.

非fēiAfrica
洲zhōucontinent

非 stands for Africa and 洲 means continent, so 非洲 names the continent.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 非 is drawn from two wings facing opposite directions. It later came to be used for going against or not being.

Open 非 →

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
水水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
州
州zhōu洲zhōu
Same sound today

洲 is built from 水 (water) and 州, which gives the sound.

Open 洲 →
Appears in
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