公职 (gōng zhí) — civil service; public office; government job | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

公职 refers to a public-office position itself (the role/status), not the person holding it (use 公务员 for the person) and not the general occupation (use 职业). Often appears in formal contexts like law and ethics.

noun

civil servicepublic officegovernment job

Measure word · 个

Examples

公职。
Hěn duō rén xiǎng zhǎo dào yí fèn wěn dìng de gōng zhí.
Many people want to find a stable government job.
公职。
gōng zhí Yāo qiú cóng yè zhě pǐn xíng duān zhèng.
Public office requires practitioners to have good morals.
公职。
Tā cí zhí hòu bú zài dān rèn rèn hé gōng zhí.
After resigning, he no longer holds any government position.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

职zhíoffice/duty

公 contributes public and 职 contributes office/duty, giving a public office.

Characters in this word

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

One theory sees 公 as a picture of a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed jar.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 職; 职 is its simplified writing.

耳戠職

Meaning part形符xíngfú

耳耳ěrear

Sound part声符shēngfú

戠

戠zhí職zhí

Same sound today

The traditional form 職 pairs 耳 (ear) with 戠, which gives its sound; the simplified 职 is a shorthand, so its parts are not the historical parts.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 7-9 Government & Politics

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