麦迪逊 (mài dí xùn) — Madison (place name, surname)

Definition

noun
Madison (place name, surname)

Examples

  • 麦迪逊。
    mài dí xùn Shì měi guó yí gè chéng shì de míng zì.
    Madison is the name of a city in the United States.
  • 姆麦迪逊。
    Zhān mǔ sī mài dí xùn shì měi guó dì sì rèn zǒng tǒng.
    James Madison was the fourth president of the United States.
  • 麦迪逊。
    Zhè tiáo dà jiē jiào mài dí xùn dà dào.
    This avenue is called Madison Avenue.

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.

麦mài
迪dí
逊xùn

“麦迪逊” spells the foreign name Madison; the characters are used for sound and do not carry their usual meanings.

Sound-only characters

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 麥; 麦 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
夊夊suīfootprint pointing down; to walk slowly
Sound part声符shēngfú
來
來lái麥mài
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

For 麦, the traditional form 麥 pairs 來, which gives the sound and once meant wheat, with 夊, a footprint pointing down for slow walking.

Open 麦 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 迪 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 遜; 逊 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
辵辵chuòto walk
Sound part声符shēngfú
孫
孫sūn遜xùn
Same sound today

The traditional form 遜 pairs 辵 (to walk) with 孫, a part used for the sound. The simplified 逊 is a later shorthand, so its visible parts are not the historical parts.

Open 逊 →

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