佛吉尼亚 (fú jí ní yà) — Virginia (US state)

Definition

noun

Virginia (US state)

Easily confused

佛吉尼亚。
Wǒ dǎ suàn míng nián qù fú jí ní yà lǚ yóu.
I plan to travel to Virginia next year.
佛吉尼亚。
fú jí ní yà Wèi yú měi guó dōng hǎi àn.
Virginia is located on the East Coast of the United States.
佛吉尼亚。
Tā de dà xué zài fú jí ní yà.
His university is in Virginia.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The characters in 佛吉尼亚 only spell the foreign name Virginia; they carry no meaning here.

Sound-only characters

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

亻弗佛

Meaning part形符xíngfú

亻Written in full as人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

弗

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

佛 is made from 亻, a person, and 弗, which gives the sound.

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

In the earliest forms, 吉 was drawn with a mouth-like lower part and an upper part that later became today's upper shape.

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

The shape draws one person sitting on or leaning against another person, giving the sense of stopping close to someone.

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.