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集中营 (jí zhōng yíng) — concentration camp

Definition

noun
concentration camp
Measure word · 座

Examples

  • ，集中营。
    Èr zhàn qī jiān, hěn duō yóu tài rén bèi guān jìn le jí zhōng yíng.
    During World War II, many Jews were sent to concentration camps.
  • 集中营。
    Zhè zuò jí zhōng yíng de lì shǐ jiào xùn zhí dé wǒ men yǒng yuǎn míng jì.
    The historical lesson of this concentration camp is worth remembering forever.
  • 集中营。
    Zuò jiā gēn jù zì jǐ zài jí zhōng yíng de jīng lì xiě le yí bù xiǎo shuō.
    The writer wrote a novel based on his own experience in a concentration camp.

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.

集中concentrate
集jígather中zhōngcenter
补充Verb + complement
营yíngcamp

集中 means gather to a center, and 营 is a camp, together naming a place where people are gathered.

Characters in this word

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

集 pairs 隹 (bird) with 木 (tree), showing birds on a tree, hence a gathering.

Open 集 →

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

The original picture showed a flagpole with a drum in the middle, set up in the center of a field.

Open 中 →

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 營; 营 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
宮宮gōngpalace
Sound part声符shēngfú
熒
熒yíng營yíng
Same sound today

The traditional form 營 pairs 宮 (palace) with 熒 as a sound part, depicting a person working all night with a light on his house; the simplified 营 is a later abbreviation.

Open 营 →
Appears in
History

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