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奴 (nú) — (bound form) slave, servant; (bound form) to enslave, treat as a slave

Definition

Bound morpheme for 'slave/servant' or 'to enslave' (as in 奴隶 'slave', 农奴 'serf', 奴役 'to enslave'). It never stands alone — pair it with a suffix like 隶 or 役 to form a noun or verb.

bound form
slaveservantto enslavetreat as a slave

Examples

  • 。
    Tā guò qù shì yì míng nú lì.
    He was a slave in the past.
  • 。
    nú Yì tā rén shì jí bú dào dé de xíng wéi.
    Enslaving others is an extremely immoral act.
  • 。
    Lì shǐ shàng céng bào fā guò duō cì nóng nú qǐ yì.
    There have been many serf uprisings in history.

Origin

Compound ideograph
六书liùshū
会意huìyì

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

奴 shows 又 (a hand) and 女 (a woman): a hand capturing and ordering a woman around.

Appears in
History

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