查尔斯顿 (Chá ěr sī dùn) — Charleston (city in South Carolina, USA)

Definition

noun

Charleston (city in South Carolina, USA)

Examples

查尔斯顿。
Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Chá ěr sī dùn lǚ yóu.
I want to travel to Charleston next year.
查尔斯顿。
Chá ěr sī dùn Shì měi guó nán bù de yí gè lì shǐ míng chéng.
Charleston is a historic city in the southern United States.
查尔斯顿，。
Tā zài Chá ěr sī dùn zhù le wǔ nián, hěn xǐ huan nà lǐ de qì hòu.
He lived in Charleston for five years and really liked the climate there.

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.

The characters 查尔斯顿 carry no meaning of their own here; they spell Charleston.

Sound-only characters

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

木木mùwood

Sound part声符shēngfú

且

且qiě查chá

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

查 pairs 木 (wood) with 且, which shows the sound. It originally meant a hawthorn tree or a wooden raft.

Open 查 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 斯 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 頓; 顿 is its simplified writing.

屯頁頓

Meaning part形符xíngfú

頁頁yè

Sound part声符shēngfú

屯

屯tún頓dùn

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.