五台 (Wǔ tái) — Mount Wutai (sacred Buddhist mountain in Shanxi…

Definition

noun

Mount Wutai (sacred Buddhist mountain in Shanxi)also Wutai County

Measure word · 座

Easily confused

五台。
Wǔ tái Shì zhōng guó de fó jiào míng shān.
Wutai is a famous Buddhist mountain in China.
五台。
Wǒ jì huà míng nián qù Wǔ tái lǚ yóu.
I plan to travel to Wutai next year.
五台。
Wǔ tái De fēng jǐng fēi cháng yōu měi.
The scenery of Wutai is very beautiful.

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.

五 (five) names the 台 (terraces) of Mount Wutai.

Characters in this word

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

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 臺; 台 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 台 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (窗台, 电视台) it is 臺; in others (台灯, 台球) (台风) it is 檯 or 台 or 颱.

The traditional form 臺 is the 喬 + 室 form; earlier versions combined a sound part with 室, and an old reading saw it as a watch tower.