教工 (jiào gōng) — teaching and administrative staff

Definition

Refers to all teaching and administrative staff at a school — not just teachers. Use 教职工 only in formal/institutional contexts; for 'teacher' on its own use 老师.

noun
teaching and administrative staff
Measure word · 位

Examples

  • 教工。
    Zhè suǒ dà xué de jiào gōng fēi cháng jìng yè.
    The teaching and administrative staff at this university are very dedicated.
  • 教工。
    Quán tǐ jiào gōng cān jiā le nián dù péi xùn.
    All faculty and staff participated in the annual training.
  • 教工。
    Xué xiào yǒu sān bǎi duō míng jiào gōng.
    The school has more than 300 teaching and administrative staff members.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéSide by side

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

教jiàoteaching
工gōngworker

教 marks teaching and 工 marks workers, so the word names teaching and administrative staff.

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
子子zǐchild
攵Written in full as攴pūteaching cane; stick that represents authority
Sound part声符shēngfú
爻
爻yáo教jiào
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

教 uses 爻 for its sound and puts 子 (child) with 攵 (攴), a teaching cane, to show teaching a child.

Open 教 →

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Open 工 →

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