南北战争 (nán běi zhàn zhēng) — American Civil War (1861–1865) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

American Civil War (1861–1865)

Examples

南北战争。
nán běi zhàn zhēng Shì měi guó lì shǐ shàng zuì zhòng yào de zhàn zhēng zhī yī.
The Civil War is one of the most important wars in American history.
南北战争。
Lǎo shī zhèng zài kè táng shàng jiǎng nán běi zhàn zhēng.
The teacher is lecturing on the Civil War in class.
南北战争。
Zhè běn shū xiáng xì miáo shù le nán běi zhàn zhēng de guò chéng.
This book describes in detail the course of the Civil War.

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.

南北south and north

南nánsouth北běinorth

联合Coordinate

战争war

战zhànfight争zhēngcontend

联合Coordinate

南 and 北 name the two sides, while 战 and 争 together mean war, so the meaning is a war between south and north.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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

The form 北 shows two people standing back to back. It originally meant 'back'.

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

占戈战

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

占

占zhàn战zhàn

Same sound today

战 pairs 占, which gives its sound, with 戈, a weapon.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爭; 争 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爭 shows two hands on a plowshare; the simplified 争 is a later abbreviation, so this picture belongs to 爭, not 争.

Appears in

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