一万三千 (yí wàn sān qiān) — (classifier) for documents and related materials

Definition

一万三千 is '13,000' — written here in formal/financial style (one ten-thousand + three thousand) rather than as a single compound number.

classifier
for documents and related materials

Examples

  • 一万三千。
    Zhè běn cái liào gòng yí wàn sān qiān zì.
    This material has 13,000 characters in total.
  • 一万三千。
    Zhè xiē wén jiàn jiā qǐ lái yí wàn sān qiān zhāng.
    These documents add up to 13,000 sheets.
  • 一万三千。
    Zhè běn shū yìn le yí wàn sān qiān cè.
    This book was printed in 13,000 copies.

Origin

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

一 is drawn as one horizontal stroke, marking the number one.

Open 一 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 萬; 万 is its simplified writing.

For 万, the form 萬 was originally a picture of a scorpion, later borrowed for its sound to write 'ten thousand'; the scorpion picture is unrelated to that number.

Open 万 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

三 is drawn as three parallel strokes, like 一 with one stroke and 二 with two.

Open 三 →

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
一一yīone, signifying a number
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén千qiān
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

千 pairs 人, whose sound was similar, with 一, a number stroke; the extra line was explained as extension, and a thousand is a number reached by extending counting.

Open 千 →

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