厄瓜多尔 (E guā duō ěr) — Ecuador

Definition

noun
Ecuador

Examples

  • 厄瓜多尔。
    Wǒ xiǎng qù E guā duō ěr lǚ yóu.
    I want to travel to Ecuador.
  • 厄瓜多尔。
    E guā duō ěr De shǒu dū shì jī duō.
    The capital of Ecuador is Quito.
  • 厄瓜多尔，。
    Tā lái zì E guā duō ěr, shuō xī bān yá yǔ.
    He comes from Ecuador and speaks Spanish.

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.

厄è
瓜guā
多duō
尔ěr

厄瓜多尔 only spells the loan name Ecuador; the characters carry no meaning of their own.

Sound-only characters

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
卪卪jiéjoint; node
Sound part声符shēngfú
厂
厂chǎng厄è
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The shape 厄 may come from a drawing of a kneeling figure 卪 with a small stroke 厂 marking the knee.

Open 厄 →

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

The shape of 瓜 is drawn from a melon hanging from its vines, which matches its meaning.

Open 瓜 →

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

多 originally showed two pieces of meat placed together; the repeated meat shape gives the sense of many.

Open 多 →

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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