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乡下人 (xiāng xià rén) — country folk; rural person; sometimes pejorative: rustic, hick

Definition

Means 'country folk / rural person', and can sound pejorative ('hick') depending on the speaker's tone and context. Use 农村人 in formal or written Chinese to avoid the dismissive edge.

noun
country folkrural personsometimes pejorative: rustichick
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 乡下人，。
    Tā suī rán shì xiāng xià rén, dàn shuō huà hěn yǒu jiàn shi.
    Although he is a country person, he speaks with great insight.
  • 乡下人，。
    Bié qiáo bù qǐ xiāng xià rén, tā men de shēng huó jīng yàn hěn fēng fù.
    Don't look down on country folk — their life experience is rich.
  • 乡下人，。
    Zhè xiē xiāng xià rén jìn chéng dǎ gōng, wèi chéng shì jiàn shè chū le bù shǎo lì.
    These rural people came to the city to work and contributed a lot to urban construction.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

乡下countryside
乡xiāngcountry下xiàbelow
偏正Modifier + head
人rénperson

乡 “country” and 下 “below” point to the countryside, and 人 “person” gives a country person.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 鄉; 乡 is its simplified writing.

  • 𠨍𠨍𠨍two people facing each other
  • 皀皀jía round-mouthed food vessel

The traditional form 鄉 combines two people facing each other with a round-mouthed food vessel, depicting a feast. The village meaning is connected to this feasting event.

Open 乡 →

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

下 is drawn as a short horizontal line below a long curved line.

Open 下 →

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →
Appears in
Countryside & Rural

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