工友 (gōng yǒu) — fellow worker, colleague; service worker (in schools, government offices, etc.)

Definition

工友 means a coworker or workmate (esp. a blue-collar peer), but is also the term for the maintenance/cleaning staff in schools or government offices — a sense 同事 does not cover. Pronounce as gōngyǒu, not gōngyǒu with a pause.

noun
fellow workercolleagueservice worker (in schools, government offices, etc.)
Measure word · 个
Easily confused

Examples

  • 工友。
    Tā shì wǒ yǐ qián de gōng yǒu.
    He is my former workmate.
  • 工友。
    Xué xiào lǐ de gōng yǒu fù zé dǎ sǎo hé wéi xiū.
    The service workers at school are responsible for cleaning and maintenance.
  • 工友。
    Wǒ hé gōng yǒu yì qǐ wán chéng le zhè ge rèn wu.
    My colleague and I completed this task together.

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.

工gōngworker
友yǒufriend

工 means worker and 友 means friend; the word names a fellow worker or service worker.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Open 工 →

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

友 is drawn as two 又, the hand form, side by side. The old explanation says two hands together mean friendship.

Open 友 →

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