千年 (qiān nián) — a thousand years | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A literal 'a thousand years', used as a fixed measure of long, almost mythical spans of time. Pairs naturally with 之后/以来/以来 to talk about deep history or distant futures.

noun

a thousand years

Examples

千年。
Zhè zuò gǔ chéng yǒu qiān nián de lì shǐ le.
This ancient city has a history of one thousand years.
千年，。
qiān nián Zhī hòu, rén lèi kě néng yǐ jīng yí mín huǒ xīng le.
After a thousand years, humans may have already immigrated to Mars.
千年。
Zhè ge chuán tǒng yǐ jīng yán xù qiān nián le.
This tradition has continued for a thousand years.

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.

千qiānthousand

年niányear

千 means thousand and 年 means years, giving a period of a thousand years.

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 →

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

禾禾héwheat; grain

Sound part声符shēngfú

人

人rén年nián

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

年 pairs 禾 (grain) with 人, which gives the sound. Its original meaning was harvest, and it later came to mean a year.

Open 年 →

Appears in

Numbers & Counting Time (Abstract)