康沃尔 (kāng wò ěr) — Cornwall (place name)

Definition

noun
Cornwall (place name)

Examples

  • 康沃尔。
    Qù nián xià tiān wǒ qù le kāng wò ěr.
    I went to Cornwall last summer.
  • 康沃尔。
    kāng wò ěr Wèi yú yīng gé lán de xī nán bù.
    Cornwall is located in the southwest of England.
  • 康沃尔。
    kāng wò ěr De hǎi àn xiàn fēi cháng měi lì.
    Cornwall's coastline is very beautiful.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

康kāng
沃wò
尔ěr

The characters 康 沃 尔 carry no meaning of their own here; the word spells Cornwall.

Sound-only characters

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

康 pairs 庚 (threshing tools) with 米 (rice), showing rice being processed into chaff.

Open 康 →

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
氵Written in full as水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
夭
夭yāo沃wò
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

沃 combines 氵 (water) with 夭 giving the sound; the shape shows irrigating with water.

Open 沃 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

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