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乌托邦 (wū tuō bāng) — Utopia (ideal, imaginary society); an unrealistic or impractical ideal

Definition

乌托邦 is a loan from 'Utopia' referring to an idealized, imaginary perfect society — often used critically to mean a plan that is unrealistic or impractical.

noun
Utopia (ideal, imaginary society)an unrealistic or impractical ideal

Examples

  • 乌托邦，。
    Tā mèng xiǎng jiàn lì yí gè wán měi de wū tuō bāng, dàn xiàn shí hěn cán kù.
    He dreams of building a perfect utopia, but reality is harsh.
  • 乌托邦，。
    Zhè ge jì huà tīng qǐ lái xiàng wū tuō bāng, gēn běn bú qiè shí jì.
    This plan sounds like a utopia — completely impractical.
  • 乌托邦，。
    Xǔ duō wén xué zuò pǐn miáo huì le bù tóng de wū tuō bāng, fǎn yìng le rén lèi duì lǐ xiǎng shè huì de xiàng wǎng.
    Many literary works depict different utopias, reflecting humanity's longing for an ideal society.

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.

乌wū
托tuō
邦bāng

乌托邦 spells the foreign name Utopia; the characters here carry no meaning of their own.

Sound-only characters

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 烏; 乌 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 烏 is a drawing of a bird. The simplified 乌 is a later abbreviation.

Open 乌 →

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
手手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
乇
乇tuō托tuō
Same sound today

托 is built from 手 (hand) and 乇, which gives the sound tuō.

Open 托 →

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
阝Written in full as邑yì
Sound part声符shēngfú
丰
丰fēng邦bāng
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

邦 combines 丰, which gives the sound, with 阝, the side form of 邑, a settlement.

Open 邦 →
Appears in
Abstract ConceptsSociety & Public Life

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