水陆 (shuǐ lù) — water and land (as in transportation or routes); delicacies from land and sea (in culinary contexts)

Definition

A fixed two-character noun meaning 'water and land' (as in 水陆交通 'water-and-land transport') or 'land-and-sea delicacies' (水陆之珍). Read as a paired set — the two characters form one concept, not two separate words.

noun
water and land (as in transportation or routes)delicacies from land and sea (in culinary contexts)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 水陆。
    Zhè ge chéng shì shuǐ lù jiāo tōng fēi cháng fā dá.
    This city has very developed water and land transportation.
  • 水陆。
    Yàn xí shàng bǎi mǎn le shuǐ lù zhī zhēn.
    The banquet table was filled with delicacies from land and sea.
  • 水陆。
    shuǐ lù Lián yùn ràng huò wù yùn shū gèng kuài le.
    Combined water-land transport makes cargo shipping faster.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéSide by side

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

水shuǐwater
陆lùland

水 and 陆 name water and land, combined to mean both environments or things from them.

Characters in this word

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

水 is a simple drawing of water flowing.

Open 水 →

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 陸; 陆 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
阝Written in full as阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
坴
坴lù陸lù
Same sound today

The traditional form 陸 uses 阝 (written in full as 阜) for the meaning and 坴 for the sound; the simplified 陆 is a later shorthand.

Open 陆 →

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