司书 (sī shū) — office clerk

Definition

noun
office clerk
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 司书。
    Tā zài zhè jiā gōng sī zuò le shí nián de sī shū.
    He worked as an office clerk in this company for ten years.
  • 司书。
    Zhè wèi sī shū fù zé zhěng lǐ wén jiàn hé jiē diàn huà.
    This office clerk is responsible for organizing files and answering phone calls.
  • 司书。
    Yǐ qián de sī shū gōng zuò bǐ xiàn zài jiǎn dān duō le.
    The work of an office clerk in the past was much simpler than now.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

司sītake charge
书shūbooks

司 means take charge, and 书 means books; managing documents names a clerk.

Characters in this word

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

The evidence is inconclusive: one suggestion sees 司 as a mouth giving orders beside a mark of authority, another reads that mark as a hand, and another sees it as a reversed older form.

Open 司 →

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 書; 书 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
聿聿yùwriting brush
Sound part声符shēngfú
者
者zhě書shū
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 書 uses 聿, a writing brush, and 者 for its sound; the simplified 书 is a later shorthand.

Open 书 →

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