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浪子 (làng zǐ) — prodigal; wastrel (a person who squanders money and leads a dissolute life)

Definition

A literary word for a 'prodigal' — someone who wastes money and lives a dissolute life. Strongly associated with the chengyu 浪子回头 ("the prodigal returns"), meaning to reform one's ways.

noun
prodigalwastrel (a person who squanders money and leads a dissolute life)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 浪子，。
    Tā nián qīng shí shì gè làng zǐ, zhěng tiān huā tiān jiǔ dì.
    He was a prodigal when young, carousing all day.
  • 浪子，。
    làng zǐ Huí tóu jīn bú huàn, tā zhōng yú kāi shǐ rèn zhēn gōng zuò le.
    A prodigal who returns is more precious than gold; he finally started working seriously.
  • 浪子。
    Zhè běn shū jiǎng shù le yí gè làng zǐ gǎi guò zì xīn de gù shi.
    This book tells the story of a prodigal who reformed himself.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

浪làngdissolute
子zǐperson

浪 contributes the sense of wild or dissolute living, and 子 denotes a person, so the word means a wastrel.

Characters in this word

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shuǐ
Sound part声符shēngfú
良
良liáng浪làng
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

浪 pairs 水 (water) with 良, which supplies the sound. The water part points to its meaning of waves.

Open 浪 →

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

子 is drawn as a baby with a large head, arms stretched out, and legs wrapped in a blanket.

Open 子 →
Appears in
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