卡纳克 (kǎ nà kè) — Karnak (ancient Egyptian temple complex)

Definition

noun

Karnak (ancient Egyptian temple complex)

卡纳克。
Wǒ qù guò āi jí de kǎ nà kè.
I have visited Karnak in Egypt.
卡纳克。
kǎ nà kè Shì gǔ āi jí zuì zhòng yào de shén miào zhī yī.
Karnak is one of the most important temples of ancient Egypt.
卡纳克。
Měi nián dōu yǒu hěn duō yóu kè qù cān guān kǎ nà kè.
Every year many tourists go to visit Karnak.

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.

卡纳克 spells Karnak; the characters carry no meaning of their own 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.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 納; 纳 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

糸糸mìsilk, thin thread

Sound part声符shēngfú

内

Same sound today

The traditional form 納 has 糸 (silk, thin thread) and 内, which gives the sound; the simplified 纳 is a shorthand.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.