高尔夫 (gāo ěr fū) — golf

Definition

noun
golf
Measure word ·

Examples

  • 高尔夫
    Tā xǐ huan dǎ gāo ěr fū.
    He likes playing golf.
  • Zhè ge gāo ěr fū qiú chǎng hěn yǒu míng.
    This golf course is very famous.
  • 高尔夫
    Wǒ shàng zhōu mò hé péng you yì qǐ qù dǎ gāo ěr fū le.
    I went to play golf with friends last weekend.

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 高尔夫 together spell the foreign name for golf; individually they do not contribute meaning.

Sound-only characters

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

高 was drawn as a tall building.

Open 高 →

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 →

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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