减员 (jiǎn yuán) — personnel reduction, staff downsizing; depletion of numbers (military)

Definition

A formal noun for cutting headcount — a company 'downsizing' or a military 'depletion of numbers'. Use 裁员 for routine layoff talk; 减员 is the more official, often large-scale term.

noun
personnel reductionstaff downsizingdepletion of numbers (military)

Examples

  • 减员，。
    Gōng sī zuì jìn jìn xíng le jiǎn yuán, hěn duō yuán gōng lí kāi le.
    The company recently carried out a staff reduction, and many employees left.
  • 减员。
    Zhè cì jiǎn yuán zhǔ yào yǐng xiǎng de shì xíng zhèng bù mén.
    This personnel reduction mainly affects the administrative departments.
  • 减员。
    Jūn duì de jiǎn yuán jì huà yǐ jīng zhì dìng hǎo le.
    The military's depletion-of-numbers plan has already been drawn up.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

减jiǎnreduce
员yuánpersonnel

减 means reduce, and 员 means personnel, so the word denotes reduction in staff.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 減; 减 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 減 has 氵, water, and 咸, a seal: sealing off a stream of water lessens its flow. The simplified 减 is a later abbreviation.

Open 减 →

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 員; 员 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
鼎鼎dǐngding
Sound part声符shēngfú
〇
〇líng員yuán
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In the traditional form 員, 〇 supplies the sound and 鼎 supplies the meaning; the simplified 员 is a shortened form.

Open 员 →

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