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复生 (fù shēng) — to come back to life; to revive; to regenerate; to reprocess

Definition

Literary/formal verb meaning 'to come back to life, revive, regenerate.' Used in scientific writing (cells, organisms) and literary prose; rare in everyday speech.

verb
to come back to lifeto reviveto regenerateto reprocess

Examples

  • 复生。
    Nà kē kū sǐ de shù jìng rán fù shēng le.
    That withered tree actually came back to life.
  • 复生。
    Zhè zhǒng xì bāo jù yǒu fù shēng de néng lì.
    This type of cell has the ability to regenerate.
  • 复生。
    Gōng chǎng jiāng fèi liào fù shēng wèi xīn de yuán liào.
    The factory reprocesses waste into new raw materials.

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.

复fùagain
生shēnglive

Again and live combine to mean come back to life.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 復; 复 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 复 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (复习, 恢复) it is 復; in others (复印, 复杂) (答复, 反复) it is 複 or 覆.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
彳彳chìwalk
Sound part声符shēngfú
复
复fù復fù
Same sound today

The traditional form 復 combines 彳, a walking part, with 复, a sound part, to show walking back and forth.

Open 复 →

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

生 shows 屮 (a bud) above 一 (the ground), drawing a sprout coming up from the earth.

Open 生 →
Appears in
Biology

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