俄罗斯 (E luó sī) — Russia | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Russia

俄罗斯。
E luó sī Shì yí gè hěn dà de guó jiā.
Russia is a very large country.
俄罗斯。
Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù E luó sī lǚ yóu.
I want to travel to Russia next year.
俄罗斯。
E luó sī De dōng tiān fēi cháng lěng.
Russia's winter is extremely cold.

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 carry no meaning of their own here; 俄罗斯 spells the foreign name Russia.

Sound-only characters

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

亻我俄

Meaning part形符xíngfú

亻Written in full as人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

我

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

俄 pairs 亻 (person) with 我, which gives the sound.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 羅; 罗 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 羅 combines 网 (net) with 維 (a bird tied with string) to show a net for catching birds; the simplified 罗 is a later abbreviation.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in