上工 (shàng gōng) — to start work (for manual labor, factory, or fa…

Definition

上工 (shàng gōng) means to start or go to work, used for manual labor, factory, or farm jobs — not office work.

verb

to start work (for manual labor, factory, or farm work)to go to work (in a physical-labor context)

上工。
Gōng rén men měi tiān zǎo shàng qī diǎn shàng gōng.
The workers start work at seven every morning.
，。
Tā jīn tiān méi lái shàng gōng, yīn wèi shēng bìng le.
He didn't come to work today because he was sick.
。
Zhè ge yuè wǒ shàng le èr shí tiān gōng.
I worked twenty days this month.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

上 gives the idea of going to or starting, and 工 is work; together they mean to go to work.

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.

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Appears in