市中心 (shì zhōng xīn) — downtown area, city center | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

downtown areacity center

Measure word · 个

Examples

市中心。
Wǒ zhù zài shì zhōng xīn fù jìn.
I live near the city center.
市中心。
shì zhōng xīn Yǒu hěn duō shāng diàn hé cān tīng.
The downtown area has many shops and restaurants.
市中心。
Wǒ men míng tiān qù shì zhōng xīn guàng guàng.
Let's go stroll around the downtown area tomorrow.

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.

中心center

中zhōngmiddle心xīncore

联合Side by side

市 gives city, and 中心 gives middle/core, yielding the central area of a city.

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

兮兮xībustling

Sound part声符shēngfú

之

之zhī市shì

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The old form 市 pairs 兮, meaning bustling, with 之, the sound part.

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

The original picture showed a flagpole with a drum in the middle, set up in the center of a field.

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

The shape of 心 comes from a drawing of a heart, now highly stylized.

Appears in

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