要员 (yào yuán) — important official; key personnel

Definition

要员 refers to important or key personnel in government or organizations — higher-ranking than ordinary 官员 (officials) and emphasizes the person's influence, not just their position.

noun
important officialkey personnel
Measure word · 位

Examples

  • 要员。
    Zhè wèi yào yuán zài huì yì shàng fā biǎo le zhòng yào jiǎng huà.
    This important official delivered an important speech at the meeting.
  • 要员。
    Gōng sī jǐ wèi yào yuán dōu chū xí le qiān yuē yí shì.
    Several key personnel of the company attended the signing ceremony.
  • 要员。
    Zhèng fǔ yào yuán zhèng zài tǎo lùn xīn de jīng jì zhèng cè.
    Government officials are discussing the new economic policy.

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.

要yàoimportant
员yuánofficial/person

要 marks importance and 员 denotes a person, giving an important official.

Characters in this word

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

要 began as a drawing of a person with both hands pointing to the waist.

Open 要 →

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 員; 员 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
鼎鼎dǐngding
Sound part声符shēngfú
〇
〇líng員yuán
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In the traditional form 員, 〇 supplies the sound and 鼎 supplies the meaning; the simplified 员 is a shortened form.

Open 员 →

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