接警 (jiē jǐng) — to receive a report of an incident (of police, fire department, etc.)

Definition

接 (jiē) + 警 (jǐng) is the formal verb for an emergency service (police, fire) officially taking in a call or report. The shared 警 just links it to 报警 ('to report an incident to police'); 接 is the act of receiving, 报警 is the act of calling in.

verb
to receive a report of an incident (of police, fire department, etc.)

Examples

  • ，接警。
    Jǐng chá jiē dào bào jǐng hòu, wǔ fēn zhōng nèi jiù jiē jǐng le.
    The police received the alarm and responded within five minutes.
  • 接警。
    Xiāo fáng duì jiē jǐng hòu lì kè gǎn wǎng huǒ zāi xiàn chǎng.
    The fire brigade rushed to the fire scene immediately after receiving the report.
  • 接警。
    Wǒ men gōng sī fù zé jiē jǐng xì tǒng de wéi hù.
    Our company is responsible for maintaining the incident-report-receiving system.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

接jiēreceive
警jǐngalarm

接 means to receive, and 警 names the alarm or report being taken in.

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
扌Written in full as手shǒu
Sound part声符shēngfú
妾
妾qiè接jiē
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left part 扌 shows a hand, matching the sense of receiving something in the hand, while 妾 gives the character its sound.

Open 接 →

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
言言yánspoken language, speech
Sound part声符shēngfú
敬
敬jìng警
Same sound today

警 places 言 (speech) below 敬; 敬 gives the sound.

Open 警 →

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