马尔代夫 (Mǎ ěr dài fū) — Maldives

Definition

noun
Maldives

Examples

  • 马尔代夫。
    Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Mǎ ěr dài fū lǚ yóu.
    I want to travel to the Maldives next year.
  • 马尔代夫。
    Mǎ ěr dài fū De hǎi shuǐ fēi cháng qīng chè.
    The seawater in the Maldives is very clear.
  • 马尔代夫。
    Tā men zài Mǎ ěr dài fū dù le mì yuè.
    They spent their honeymoon in the Maldives.

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.

马mǎ
尔ěr
代dài
夫fū

The characters 马尔代夫 only spell the foreign name; none carries its own meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 馬; 马 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 馬 shows a horse with its head facing left, a flowing mane, and two legs standing vertically.

Open 马 →

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 →

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
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
弋
弋yì代dài
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In 代, 亻 shows a person, and 弋 gives the sound.

Open 代 →

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.

夫 originally drew a man. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write a pronoun, so the picture and the pronoun meaning are unrelated.

Open 夫 →

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