非典 (fēi diǎn) — SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)

Definition

非典 (fēidiǎn), short for 非典型肺炎, is the everyday Chinese name for SARS, the 2003 epidemic respiratory disease. It is a proper historical term referring specifically to that event, not a generic word for epidemic.

noun
SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)

Examples

  • 2003非典。
    2003 Nián fēi diǎn yì qíng zài quán qiú duō gè guó jiā bào fā.
    The SARS outbreak occurred in many countries around the world in 2003.
  • 非典。
    fēi diǎn Shì yì zhǒng yóu guān zhuàng bìng dú yǐn qǐ de chuán rǎn bìng.
    SARS is an infectious disease caused by a coronavirus.
  • 非典。
    Gè guó zhèng fǔ cóng fēi diǎn shì jiàn zhōng xī qǔ le fáng yì jīng yàn.
    Governments around the world learned epidemic prevention lessons from the SARS incident.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 非 is drawn from two wings facing opposite directions. It later came to be used for going against or not being.

Open 非 →

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

  • 冊冊cèbooks
  • 丌丌qítable

典 puts 冊 (books) on a 丌 (table), showing official books resting on a table.

Open 典 →

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