秘鲁 (Bì lǔ) — Peru

Definition

noun
Peru

Examples

  • 秘鲁。
    Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù Bì lǔ lǚ yóu.
    I want to travel to Peru next year.
  • 秘鲁。
    Bì lǔ De mǎ qiū bǐ qiū shì shì jiè zhù míng de gǔ jì.
    Peru's Machu Picchu is a world-famous historical site.
  • 秘鲁。
    Tā cóng Bì lǔ dài huí lái hěn duō tè sè lǐ wù.
    He brought back many special gifts from Peru.

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.

秘mì
鲁lǔ

The characters 秘 and 鲁 here only spell the foreign name Peru and carry no meaning of their own.

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
禾禾hé
Sound part声符shēngfú
必
必bì秘Bì
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The 必 part gives 秘 its sound. The 禾 side replaced an older ritual marker, linking it to secret rituals and arcane meaning.

Open 秘 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 魯; 鲁 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 魯 pairs 魚 (fish) and 口 (mouth) to show fish entering the mouth, giving the sense delicious/excellent. The simplified 鲁 is a later shorthand, not the original picture.

Open 鲁 →

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