南斯拉夫 (Nán sī lā fū) — Yugoslavia | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Yugoslavia

Examples

南斯拉夫。
Nán sī lā fū Céng jīng shì yí gè ōu zhōu guó jiā.
Yugoslavia was once a European country.
南斯拉夫。
Tā shì Nán sī lā fū rén.
He is Yugoslavian.
南斯拉夫1990。
Nán sī lā fū Zài 1990 nián dài jiě tǐ le.
Yugoslavia broke up in the 1990s.

Origin

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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

手手shǒuhand

Sound part声符shēngfú

立

立lì拉lā

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

拉 pairs 手 (hand) with 立, a component that supplies the sound.

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

夫 originally drew a man. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write a pronoun, so the picture and the pronoun meaning are unrelated.

Appears in

International & Diplomacy

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