弗吉尼亚 (Fú jí ní yà) — Virginia (U.S. state)

Definition

noun

Virginia (U.S. state)

Easily confused

弗吉尼亚。
Fú jí ní yà Shì měi guó dōng bù de yí gè zhōu.
Virginia is a state in the eastern United States.
弗吉尼亚。
Míng nián chūn tiān wǒ xiǎng qù Fú jí ní yà lǚ yóu.
Next spring I want to travel to Virginia.
弗吉尼亚。
Fú jí ní yà De shǒu fǔ shì lǐ shì mǎn.
The capital of Virginia is Richmond.

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.

The characters in 弗吉尼亚 only spell Virginia and carry no meaning of their own.

Sound-only characters

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

The old form of 弗 pictures a rope wrapped around two pieces of wood to keep them straight.

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

In the earliest forms, 吉 was drawn with a mouth-like lower part and an upper part that later became today's upper shape.

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

The shape draws one person sitting on or leaning against another person, giving the sense of stopping close to someone.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 亞; 亚 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 亞 likely shows an overhead view of a construction, perhaps a 亞-shaped tomb. Its later simplified form 亚 is just a shorthand.