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上千 (shàng qiān) — over a thousand; thousands of

Definition

numeral
over a thousandthousands of

Examples

  • 上千。
    Zhè cì huó dòng xī yǐn le shàng qiān rén cān jiā.
    This event attracted over a thousand participants.
  • 上千。
    Zhè jiā gōng sī yǒu shàng qiān míng yuán gōng.
    This company has over a thousand employees.
  • 上千。
    Tā měi nián juān kuǎn shàng qiān yuán yòng yú jiào yù.
    He donates thousands of yuan every year for education.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

上shàngreach
千qiānthousand

上 means to reach or exceed, and 千 is a thousand, giving a sense of more than a thousand.

Characters in this word

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

上 is drawn as a short horizontal line placed above a longer arc, marking a position above that arc.

Open 上 →

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 →
Appears in
Numbers & Counting

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