白领 (bái lǐng) — white-collar worker | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A noun for a white-collar worker — an office professional, as opposed to manual or service labor. The adjective 白领 also describes the work or class itself.

noun

white-collar worker

Measure word · 个

Examples

白领。
Hěn duō nián qīng rén xiǎng chéng wéi bái lǐng.
Many young people want to become white-collar workers.
白领，。
bái lǐng Gōng zuò yā lì hěn dà, dàn shōu rù yě bú cuò.
White-collar work is very stressful, but the income is not bad either.
IT白领。
Tā zài yì jiā IT gōng sī zuò bái lǐng.
She works as a white-collar worker at an IT company.

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.

白 describes 领, metonymically referring to office workers.

Characters in this word

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

白 is thought to picture either an acorn or a human head.

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 領; 领 is its simplified writing.

令頁領

Meaning part形符xíngfú

頁頁yè

Sound part声符shēngfú

令

令lìng領lǐng

Same sound today

The traditional form 領 has 令 as a sound part and 頁 as a meaning part; the simplified 领 is a later shorthand.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 Professions & Jobs

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