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暗杀 (àn shā) — to assassinate

Definition

verb
to assassinate

Examples

  • 暗杀。
    Jǐng fāng chéng gōng zǔ zhǐ le yì chǎng àn shā xíng dòng.
    The police successfully prevented an assassination operation.
  • 暗杀。
    Lì shǐ shàng yǒu hěn duō zhù míng de àn shā shì jiàn.
    There are many famous assassination incidents in history.
  • 暗杀。
    Xiǎo shuō zhōng de zhǔ jué bèi dí rén àn shā le.
    The protagonist in the novel was assassinated by enemies.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

暗ànhidden
杀shākill

To 杀, or kill, in a 暗, or hidden, way is to assassinate.

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
日日rìsun
Sound part声符shēngfú
音
音yīn暗àn
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

暗 pairs 日 (sun) with 音, which gives the sound.

Open 暗 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 殺; 杀 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 殺 comes from an old drawing of a boar impaled in the head, with 人 and 又 added to show a person doing the killing; the simplified 杀 is a later abbreviation.

Open 杀 →
Appears in
Crime & Police

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