沃尔玛 (wò ěr mǎ) — Walmart (retailer)

Definition

noun

Walmart (retailer)

Examples

沃尔玛。
Wǒ zuó tiān qù wò ěr mǎ mǎi le hěn duō dōng xī.
I went to Walmart yesterday and bought a lot of things.
沃尔玛。
wò ěr mǎ Zài zhè ge chéng shì yǒu sān jiā fēn diàn.
Walmart has three branches in this city.
沃尔玛？
Nǐ zhī bu zhī dào zuì jìn de wò ěr mǎ zěn me zǒu?
Do you know how to get to the nearest Walmart?

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.

沃wò

尔ěr

玛mǎ

沃尔玛 is a sound spelling of Walmart; the characters carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

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

氵夭沃

Meaning part形符xíngfú

氵Written in full as水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

夭

夭yāo沃wò

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

沃 combines 氵 (water) with 夭 giving the sound; the shape shows irrigating with water.

Open 沃 →

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 →

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 瑪; 玛 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

𤣩Written in full as玉yùjade

Sound part声符shēngfú

馬

馬mǎ瑪

Same sound today

For 玛, the traditional form 瑪 combines 𤣩, a jade part, with 馬, which gives the sound.

Open 玛 →

Appears in