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享年 (xiǎng nián) — to pass away at the age of (formal, used in obituaries for the elderly)

Definition

A formal, respectful verb used almost only in obituaries for elderly people, meaning 'who lived to the age of.' It expresses honor, not just the fact of death.

verb
to pass away at the age of (formal, used in obituaries for the elderly)

Examples

  • 享年。
    Tā xiǎng nián bā shí bā suì.
    He passed away at the age of 88.
  • 享年。
    Zhè wèi lǎo jiào shòu xiǎng nián jiǔ shí wǔ suì.
    This old professor passed away at the age of 95.
  • 享年，。
    Tā xiǎng nián yì bǎi líng èr suì, shì cūn lǐ zuì cháng shòu de lǎo rén.
    She passed away at the age of 102, the oldest person in the village.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

享xiǎngenjoy/receive
年niányears

享 means to enjoy or receive, and 年 refers to years lived.

Characters in this word

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

享 was a drawing of an ancestral shrine.

Open 享 →

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
禾禾héwheat; grain
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén年nián
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

年 pairs 禾 (grain) with 人, which gives the sound. Its original meaning was harvest, and it later came to mean a year.

Open 年 →
Appears in
Life Stages & Age

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