罗得西亚 (luó dé xī yà) — (historical place name) Rhodesia

Definition

罗得西亚 (Luódéxīyà) is a historical place name for the country in southern Africa that existed under that name and was renamed Zimbabwe in 1980. Students most often meet it in history, politics, or news contexts.

noun
(historical place name) Rhodesia

Examples

  • 罗得西亚。
    luó dé xī yà Shì fēi zhōu nán bù de yí gè lì shǐ guó jiā.
    Rhodesia was a historical country in southern Africa.
  • 罗得西亚〇。
    luó dé xī yà Zài yī jiǔ bā líng nián gǎi míng wèi jīn bā bù wéi.
    Rhodesia changed its name to Zimbabwe in 1980.
  • 罗得西亚。
    Tā xiě le yì běn guān yú luó dé xī yà lì shǐ de shū.
    He wrote a book about the history of Rhodesia.

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.

罗luó
得dé
西xī
亚yà

The characters carry no meaning of their own here; together they spell the foreign name Rhodesia.

Sound-only characters

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.

  • 网网wǎngnet
  • 維維wéibird (tied with string)

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.

Open 罗 →

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

The old form 㝵 showed a hand picking up a cowry, meaning to obtain; later changes turned that picture into 得.

Open 得 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 西 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 亞; 亚 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 亞 likely shows an overhead view of a construction, perhaps a 亞-shaped tomb. Its later simplified form 亚 is just a shorthand.

Open 亚 →

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