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里尔 (Lǐ ěr) — Lille (city in France)

Definition

noun
Lille (city in France)

Examples

  • 里尔。
    Lǐ ěr Shì fǎ guó běi bù de yí zuò zhòng yào chéng shì.
    Lille is an important city in northern France.
  • 里尔。
    Wǒ míng nián dǎ suàn qù Lǐ ěr lǚ yóu.
    I plan to travel to Lille next year.
  • 里尔。
    Lǐ ěr Yǒu zhù míng de měi shù bó wù guǎn.
    Lille has a famous art museum.

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.

里lǐ
尔ěr

里尔 only spells the foreign name Lille; its characters do not carry their own meanings.

Sound-only characters

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 裡; 里 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 里 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (里, 里面) it is 裡; in others (公里) it is 里 or 裏.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
衤Written in full as衣yīclothes
Sound part声符shēngfú
里
里lǐ裡lǐ
Same sound today

The form 裡 pairs 衤 (clothes) with 里 as a sound component.

Open 里 →

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爾; 尔 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爾, simplified as 尔, originally drew cloth on a loom with crossing threads. It was borrowed for its sound to write “you,” so the picture is unrelated to that meaning.

Open 尔 →
Appears in
City & Urban

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