卡特尔 (kǎ tè ěr) — cartel (a group of businesses that collude to control prices or production)

Definition

noun
cartel (a group of businesses that collude to control prices or production)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 卡特尔。
    Zhè jiā gōng sī jiā rù le guó jì kǎ tè ěr.
    This company has joined an international cartel.
  • 卡特尔。
    Zhèng fǔ zhèng zài diào chá shí yóu kǎ tè ěr de xíng wéi.
    The government is investigating the activities of the oil cartel.
  • 卡特尔。
    Jǐ gè dà qǐ yè zǔ chéng le yí gè kǎ tè ěr.
    Several large enterprises formed a cartel.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

卡kǎ
特tè
尔ěr

The characters 卡特尔 spell a foreign loan for cartel; none of the individual characters carries its own meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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

卡 is made from 上 (up) and 下 (down), with their horizontal lines fused, showing something squeezed between above and below.

Open 卡 →

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
牛牛niúox
Sound part声符shēngfú
寺
寺sì特tè
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The shape combines 牛 (ox) with 寺, which gives the pronunciation; it originally meant a large bull.

Open 特 →

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

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