埃及人 (āi jí rén) — Egyptian (person) | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Egyptian (person)

Measure word · 个

Examples

埃及人。
Zhè wèi āi jí rén shì wǒ de dà xué tóng xué.
This Egyptian is my college classmate.
埃及人。
Hěn duō āi jí rén dōu huì shuō ā lā bó yǔ.
Many Egyptians can speak Arabic.
埃及人，。
Nà jiā cān tīng shì āi jí rén kāi de, cài hěn hǎo chī.
That restaurant is run by an Egyptian, and the food is delicious.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

埃及Egypt

音译Transliteration

埃及 names Egypt, and 人 is a person from there.

Characters in this word

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

土矣埃

Meaning part形符xíngfú

土土tǔearth; soil

Sound part声符shēngfú

矣

矣yǐ埃āi

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

The 土 side of 埃 relates to earth or soil, while 矣 gives the sound.

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

人人rénperson
又又yòuhand

及 pairs 人 (person) with 又 (hand), showing a hand grabbing a person.

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

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