奠基人 (diàn jī rén) — founder (of an institution, movement, etc.)

Definition

noun

founder (of an institution, movement, etc.)

Measure word · 位

奠基人。
Zhè wèi diàn jī rén wèi dà xué de fā zhǎn zuò chū le jù dà gòng xiàn.
This founder made great contributions to the university's development.
奠基人。
Tā shì zhè ge zhèng dǎng de zhǔ yào diàn jī rén zhī yī.
He is one of the main founders of this political party.
奠基人。
Gōng sī de diàn jī rén zài chuàng yè chū qī yù dào le hěn duō kùn nan.
The company's founder encountered many difficulties in the early days of starting the business.

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.

奠基lay foundation

奠diànlay基jīfoundation

动宾Verb + object

A 人 connected with 奠基, laying a foundation, is a founder.

Characters in this word

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

奠 originally pictured an alcohol vessel placed on a mat.

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

其土基

Meaning part形符xíngfú

土土tǔearth

Sound part声符shēngfú

其

Same sound today

The lower 土 means earth, and the upper 其 gives the sound; together they form the idea of a foundation of earth.

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.