雇工 (gù gōng) — to hire workers / to hire labor

Definition

雇工 is a formal verb meaning 'to hire workers' — typically for manual or farm labor, often seasonal. More formal than 打工 (working as a laborer) and broader than 雇用 (hire personnel, often white-collar).

verb
to hire workers / to hire labor

Examples

  • 雇工。
    Wǒ men nóng chǎng xū yào gù gōng.
    Our farm needs to hire workers.
  • 。
    Zuó tiān wǒ men gù le sān gè gōng.
    Yesterday we hired three workers.
  • 雇工。
    Tā měi nián chūn tiān dōu gù gōng.
    He hires workers every spring.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

雇gùhire
工gōngworker

The 雇 hire action is directed at 工 laborers, meaning to hire workers.

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
隹隹zhuī
Sound part声符shēngfú
戶
戶hù雇gù
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

雇 is made of 戶 and 隹: 戶 points to the sound, and 隹 points to the meaning.

Open 雇 →

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Open 工 →

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