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祖籍 (zǔ jí) — ancestral hometown (the place where one's ancestors originated, often tracked genealogically)

Definition

A formal noun for one's ancestral hometown — the family's place of origin recorded on forms, more official than 老家. Compare 籍贯, which is the near-synonym usually filled in on ID documents.

noun
ancestral hometown (the place where one's ancestors originated, often tracked genealogically)

Examples

  • 祖籍，。
    Wǒ de zǔ jí shì guǎng dōng, dàn wǒ zài běi jīng chū shēng zhǎng dà.
    My ancestral hometown is Guangdong, but I was born and grew up in Beijing.
  • ，祖籍。
    Tián biǎo gé shí, tā xiě de shì fù qīn nà biān de zǔ jí.
    When filling out the form, he wrote down his paternal ancestral hometown.
  • 祖籍，。
    Suī rán jiā zú zǎo jiù bú zài zǔ jí zhù le, dàn měi nián qīng míng hái huì huí qù sǎo mù.
    Even though the family no longer lives in the ancestral hometown, they still go back every Qingming Festival to sweep the graves.

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.

祖zǔancestors
籍jíregistered home

祖 refers to ancestors and 籍 to one's registered home, giving the sense of ancestral hometown.

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
示示shì
Sound part声符shēngfú
且
且qiě祖zǔ
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

祖 was made by adding 示 to 且, and 且 gives the sound.

Open 祖 →

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
𥫗Written in full as竹zhúbamboo
Sound part声符shēngfú
耤
耤jí籍jí
Same sound today

籍 pairs 𥫗 (bamboo, written as 竹) with 耤 for the sound. The bamboo part is for bamboo census books.

Open 籍 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.