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特罗伊 (tè luó yī) — Troy (ancient city)

Definition

noun
Troy (ancient city)

Examples

  • 特罗伊。
    tè luó yī Shì yí zuò gǔ dài chéng shì.
    Troy is an ancient city.
  • 特罗伊。
    Wǒ qù guò tè luó yī de yí zhǐ.
    I have visited the ruins of Troy.
  • 特罗伊。
    tè luó yī De gù shi zài quán shì jiè dōu hěn yǒu míng.
    The story of Troy is famous all over the world.

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.

特tè
罗luó
伊yī

The characters carry no meaning of their own here; they spell Troy.

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
牛牛niúox
Sound part声符shēngfú
寺
寺sì特tè
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The shape combines 牛 (ox) with 寺, which gives the pronunciation; it originally meant a large bull.

Open 特 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 羅; 罗 is its simplified writing.

  • 网网wǎngnet
  • 維維wéibird (tied with string)

The traditional form 羅 combines 网 (net) with 維 (a bird tied with string) to show a net for catching birds; the simplified 罗 is a later abbreviation.

Open 罗 →

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
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
尹
尹yǐn伊yī
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left part 亻 shows a person. The right part 尹 is used for the sound.

Open 伊 →
Appears in
History

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