直布罗陀 (Zhí bù luó tuó) — Gibraltar

Definition

noun

Gibraltar

直布罗陀。
Zhí bù luó tuó Shì yīng guó de yí gè hǎi wài lǐng dì.
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory.
直布罗陀。
Wǒ men quán jiā jì huà qù Zhí bù luó tuó lǚ yóu.
Our whole family plans to travel to Gibraltar.
直布罗陀。
Zhí bù luó tuó Hǎi xiá lián jiē le dì zhōng hǎi hé dà xī yáng.
The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

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.

In 直布罗陀, the characters spell the foreign name Gibraltar and carry no meanings of their own.

Sound-only characters

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

The earliest form of 直 pairs 目, an eye, with an unclear stroke 丨.

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

巾巾jīnkerchief

Sound part声符shēngfú

父

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

布 pairs 巾, a kerchief, with 父 as a sound part.

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.

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.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in