人防 (rén fáng) — civil air defense

Definition

Short for 人民防空 — the system of public shelters, sirens, and tunnels built to protect civilians during air attacks. Treat it as a fixed institutional term; do not analyze the characters literally.

noun
civil air defense

Examples

  • ，。
    Měi gè chéng shì dōu yǒu rén fáng gōng chéng, yòng lái bǎo hù shì mín ān quán.
    Every city has civil air defense projects to protect citizens.
  • 人防。
    Tā men zhèng zài xiū jiàn xīn de rén fáng shè shī.
    They are building new civil air defense facilities.
  • 人防。
    Zhèng fǔ dìng qī jiǎn chá rén fáng jǐng bào xì tǒng.
    The government regularly inspects the civil air defense alarm system.

Origin

Characters in this word

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 →

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阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
方
方fāng防fáng
Same sound today

防 pairs 阝 (written fully as 阜) with 方, which gives the sound.

Open 防 →

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