楼 (lóu) — building (with more than one story); floor, story (in a building)
Definition
楼 is a multi-story building or one of its floors (一层楼 = one floor), not the ground surface (地/地面) and not a house/home (房子).
noun
building (with more than one story)floorstory (in a building)
Measure word · 层, 座, 栋
Examples
- 楼。Wǒ jiā zhù zài wǔ lóu.My home is on the fifth floor.
- 。lóu Xià yǒu yí gè chāo shì.There is a supermarket downstairs.
- 楼，。Zhè lóu hěn gāo, yǒu èr shí céng.This building is very tall; it has twenty floors.
Origin
Sound + meaning六书liùshū
形声xíngshēngMost 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 樓; 楼 is its simplified writing.
Sound part声符shēngfú
婁
婁lóu樓lóu
Same sound today
The traditional form 樓 pairs 木 (tree) with 婁 as its sound part; the simplified 楼 is a later shorthand.
Appears in
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