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无业 (wú yè) — to be unemployed; to be out of work; to have no property; to be without assets

Definition

Literary/formal term meaning 'unemployed' (no job) or 'without property'. In modern Chinese, the job-related sense is far more common in official and news contexts than in daily speech.

verb
to be unemployedto be out of workto have no propertyto be without assets

Examples

  • 无业。
    Tā yīn wèi gōng sī dǎo bì ér cháng qī wú yè.
    He has been unemployed for a long time because the company went bankrupt.
  • ，。
    Tā wú le yè, zhèng zài zhǎo gōng zuò.
    He lost his job and is currently looking for work.
  • 无业，。
    Tā jiā wú yè, kào zhòng dì wéi shēng.
    His family has no property; they rely on farming to make a living.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

无wúnot have
业yèjob/property

无 means not have and 业 means job or property; together they describe someone who has no job.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 業; 业 is its simplified writing.

  • 丵丵zhuóchisel
  • 大大dàperson; big

The traditional 業 is explained as a picture of a beam from which bells and chimes hang, or as a person lifting that beam. The simplified 业 is a shorthand, not the original shape.

Open 业 →
Appears in
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