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杀人 (shā rén) — to kill someone, to commit murder; (law) homicide

Definition

杀人 is a verb-object compound meaning 'to kill a person / commit murder'. As a 离合词 it splits in the middle (杀过的人, 杀了两个人) and is the standard legal/news term for homicide.

verb
to kill someoneto commit murder(law) homicide

Examples

  • 杀人。
    Tā shā rén hòu táo dào le guó wài.
    After killing someone, he fled abroad.
  • 。
    Jǐng fāng shuō tā céng jīng shā guò liǎng gè rén.
    The police said he had killed two people before.
  • 杀人。
    Zhè qǐ shì jiàn bèi rèn dìng wèi gù yì shā rén.
    This incident was classified as intentional homicide.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

杀shākill
人rénperson

“杀” is the action and “人” is the person killed.

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 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 →

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →
Appears in
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