大学 (dà xué) — university, college | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

The general word for 'university' as an institution. A school within a university is 学院 (e.g., business school); the whole campus is 校园.

noun

universitycollege

Measure word · 所

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.

学xuélearning

大 gives the scale, and 学 gives learning, so together they mean a large institution of learning.

Characters in this word

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

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

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 學; 学 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 學 may have used 爻 and 六 for sound, with hands and a child added later; the simplified 学 is a shorthand.

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