里斯本 (lǐ sī běn) — Lisbon, capital of Portugal | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Lisboncapital of Portugal

Examples

里斯本。
Wǒ míng nián xiǎng qù lǐ sī běn lǚ xíng.
I want to travel to Lisbon next year.
里斯本。
lǐ sī běn Shì pú tao yá de shǒu dū.
Lisbon is the capital of Portugal.
里斯本。
Tā zài lǐ sī běn gōng zuò le wǔ nián.
He worked in Lisbon for five years.

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.

The 里斯本 here just spell the name Lisbon, so they 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.

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.

衤里裡

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.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

本 adds a stroke at the bottom of a tree shape to mark the roots, giving the sense of foundation or original.

Appears in

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