家私 (jiā sī) — family property; household belongings

Definition

家私 refers to household belongings or family property — physical goods owned by a household. Note: the headword is pronounced jiā here (regional/Cantonese-influenced reading), not the standard jiāsi.

noun
family propertyhousehold belongings
Measure word · 件

Examples

  • ，家私。
    Tā qù shì hòu, jiā sī dōu fēn gěi le ér nǚ men.
    After he passed away, the family property was divided among his children.
  • 家私，。
    Zhè tào jiā sī hěn guì zhòng, yào xiǎo xīn bǎo guǎn.
    This set of household belongings is very valuable; take good care of it.
  • 家私。
    Tā men bǎ jiā sī dōu bān dào le xīn fáng zi.
    They moved all their household belongings to the new house.

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.

家jiāfamily
私sīprivate property

家 gives 'family' and 私 gives 'private property', making 'family's private property'.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
宀宀miánroof
Sound part声符shēngfú
𢑓
𢑓𢑓家jiā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The early drawing of 家 showed a roof 宀 over a male-pig sign 𢑓 that gave the pronunciation; the lower part later changed shape.

Open 家 →

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
禾禾hé
Sound part声符shēngfú
厶
厶sī私sī
Same sound today

私 combines 禾 and 厶; 厶 originally represented the word, and 禾 was added later.

Open 私 →

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