千千 (qiān qiān) — countless, myriad (literary)

Definition

Literary reduplication of 千 — 'thousands upon thousands', used in writing for an immense, uncountable number. Predicates nouns like 千千结 or 千千思 for poetic effect, not for counting.

numeral

countlessmyriad (literary)

Examples

千千，。
Xīn zhōng yǒu qiān qiān jié, nán yǐ jiě kāi.
There are countless knots in my heart, hard to untie.
千千，。
Shì jiān qiān qiān shì, jiē yóu yīn guǒ.
All the myriad things in the world come from cause and effect.
千千。
Tā xiě xià le qiān qiān sī niàn.
He wrote down his countless thoughts of longing.

Origin

Reduplicated word

构词法gòucífǎ

重叠chóngdiéReduplication

A syllable said twice — for affection, for softness, or simply because that is how the word is said.

千qiānthousand

千 means thousand; repeating it suggests an immense number.

Characters in this word

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

一一yīone, signifying a number

Sound part声符shēngfú

人

人rén千qiān

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

千 pairs 人, whose sound was similar, with 一, a number stroke; the extra line was explained as extension, and a thousand is a number reached by extending counting.

Open 千 →