亚述 (yà shù) — Assyria (ancient kingdom in Mesopotamia)

Definition

noun

Assyria (ancient kingdom in Mesopotamia)

亚述。
yà shù Shì gǔ dài liǎng hé liú yù de yí gè qiáng dà dì guó.
Assyria was a powerful empire in the ancient Mesopotamian region.
亚述。
Zhè ge bó wù guǎn chén liè le xǔ duō yà shù shí qī de wén wù.
This museum displays many artifacts from the Assyrian period.
亚述。
yà shù Dì guó de shǒu dū ní ní wēi céng shì dāng shí zuì dà de chéng shì.
Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, was once the largest city at that time.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 亞; 亚 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 亞 likely shows an overhead view of a construction, perhaps a 亞-shaped tomb. Its later simplified form 亚 is just a shorthand.

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

辵辵chuòwalk

Sound part声符shēngfú

朮

朮zhú述shù

Same sound today

述 combines 辵, a walking radical, with 朮, which gives the sound; the walking part belongs to the meaning.