环卫 (huán wèi) — environmental sanitation (short for 环境卫生); environmental hygiene (referring to street cleaning, waste management, etc.)

Definition

A short form of 环境卫生, used in official, written, and news contexts to refer to street cleaning and waste management in cities — not a personal-hygiene term.

noun
environmental sanitation (short for 环境卫生)environmental hygiene (referring to street cleaning, waste management, etc.)

Examples

  • 环卫。
    huán wèi Gōng rén měi tiān líng chén jiù kāi shǐ gōng zuò.
    Sanitation workers start their work every day before dawn.
  • 环卫。
    Chéng shì huán wèi shuǐ píng fǎn yìng le jū mín de shēng huó zhì liàng.
    The level of urban sanitation reflects residents' quality of life.
  • 环卫。
    Wǒ men yào zūn zhòng huán wèi rén yuán de láo dòng.
    We should respect the labor of sanitation workers.

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.

环huánenvironment
卫wèisanitation

Environment and sanitation are joined to name street cleaning and waste management.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 環; 环 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
玉玉yùjade
Sound part声符shēngfú
睘
睘qióng環huán
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 環 pairs 玉 (jade) with a sound part; the simplified 环 is a shorthand and its right side is not the historical sound part.

Open 环 →

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 衛; 卫 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
行行xíng
Sound part声符shēngfú
韋
韋wéi衛wèi
Same sound today

The traditional form 衛 is built from 行 as the sense part and 韋 as the sound part; the simplified 卫 is a shorthand.

Open 卫 →

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