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普鲁士 (Pǔ lǔ shì) — Prussia (historical German state)

Definition

noun
Prussia (historical German state)

Examples

  • 普鲁士。
    Wǒ zài lì shǐ kè shàng xué guò Pǔ lǔ shì de lì shǐ.
    I studied the history of Prussia in history class.
  • 普鲁士。
    Pǔ lǔ shì Céng jīng shì ōu zhōu de yí gè qiáng guó.
    Prussia was once a powerful state in Europe.
  • 普鲁士。
    Wǒ duì Pǔ lǔ shì de lì shǐ hěn gǎn xìng qù.
    I am very interested in the history of Prussia.

Origin

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.

普pǔ
鲁lǔ
士shì

普鲁士 spells Prussia; 普, 鲁, and 士 carry no meanings of their own.

Sound-only characters

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

  • 並並bìngside by side
  • 日日rìsun

普 is made of 日 (sun) and 並 (side by side).

Open 普 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 魯; 鲁 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 魯 pairs 魚 (fish) and 口 (mouth) to show fish entering the mouth, giving the sense delicious/excellent. The simplified 鲁 is a later shorthand, not the original picture.

Open 鲁 →

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

The shape 士 comes from a simple drawing of a war axe. The character later came to mean a soldier, officer, or intellectual.

Open 士 →
Appears in
History

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