格林尼治 (Gé lín ní zhì) — Greenwich (a district in southeast London, England, known for the Royal Observatory and Greenwich Mean Time)

Definition

noun
Greenwich (a district in southeast London, England, known for the Royal Observatory and Greenwich Mean Time)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 格林尼治，。
    Gé lín ní zhì Wèi yú lún dūn dōng nán bù, shì zhù míng de lǚ yóu jǐng diǎn.
    Greenwich is located in southeast London and is a famous tourist attraction.
  • 格林尼治。
    Shì jiè biāo zhǔn shí jiān shì yǐ Gé lín ní zhì de jīng xiàn wèi jī zhǔn de.
    Coordinated Universal Time is based on the meridian of Greenwich.
  • 格林尼治，。
    Wǒ qù nián qù guò Gé lín ní zhì, nà lǐ de tiān wén tái hěn yǒu yì si.
    I went to Greenwich last year; the observatory there is very interesting.

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.

格gé
林lín
尼ní
治zhì

The characters in 格林尼治 carry no meaning of their own here; it spells Greenwich.

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
各
各gè格gé
Same sound today

格 is built from 木 (wood) on the left and 各 on the right, which gives the sound.

Open 格 →

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

林 is made of two 木 (tree) placed side by side, showing many trees together, hence a forest.

Open 林 →

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

The shape draws one person sitting on or leaning against another person, giving the sense of stopping close to someone.

Open 尼 →

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
水水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
台
台tái治zhì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

治 has 水 (water) and 台; 台 gives the sound, and the character named a river.

Open 治 →

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