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重金 (zhòng jīn) — a huge sum of money; great wealth; (music) heavy metal

Definition

Two distinct meanings: a huge sum of money (聘请, 悬赏, 收购) vs. the music genre heavy metal. In the money sense it modifies actions like paying or hiring, not a countable sum.

noun
a huge sum of moneygreat wealth(music) heavy metal

Examples

  • 重金。
    Gōng sī yòng zhòng jīn pìn qǐng le yí wèi guó jì zhuān jiā.
    The company hired an international expert with a huge sum of money.
  • 重金。
    Zhè cì de zhòng jīn xuán shǎng xī yǐn le hěn duō rén cān yù.
    The huge reward this time attracted many people to participate.
  • 重金。
    Tā zuì xǐ huan de yīn yuè fēng gé shì zhòng jīn.
    His favorite music genre is heavy metal.

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.

重zhòngheavy
金jīnmetal/money

重 (heavy) specifies 金 (metal/money), giving a huge sum or heavy metal.

Characters in this word

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
人人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
東
東dōng重zhòng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

重 developed from a picture of a man carrying a bag, with 人 for the man and 東 for the bag; a later ground element was folded into the form.

Open 重 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

金 was drawn with marks for two pieces of metal, along with a part that gave its sound; it first meant copper, then metals and gold.

Open 金 →
Appears in
Money & Currency

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