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异域 (yì yù) — foreign land; exotic or strange place away from home

Definition

A literary, formal word for a 'foreign or exotic land' — more evocative and written than everyday 外国. Often used in prose, film, and poetry to evoke strangeness or distance from home.

noun
foreign landexotic or strange place away from home

Examples

  • 异域，。
    Tā nián qīng shí céng dào yì yù qiú xué, jiàn shi le bù tóng de wén huà.
    When he was young, he went to a foreign land to study and experienced a different culture.
  • 异域，。
    Zài yì yù shēng huó duō nián hòu, tā yī rán jì de gù xiāng de wèi dào.
    After living in a foreign land for many years, she still remembered the taste of her hometown.
  • 异域。
    Zhè bù diàn yǐng jiǎng shù le yí duàn fā shēng zài yì yù de ài qíng gù shi.
    This movie tells a love story that takes place in a strange land.

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.

异yìdifferent/strange
域yùregion

异 “different/strange” describes 域 “region”, meaning a foreign land.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 異; 异 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 異 depicts a person with a mask 田 over the face, so the face looks different. The simplified 异 is a later shorthand.

Open 异 →

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
土土tǔ
Sound part声符shēngfú
或
或huò域yù
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

域 uses 土, earth or soil, to show it is about land, and 或 to suggest its pronunciation.

Open 域 →
Appears in
Geography & Landforms

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