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黑道 (hēi dào) — (literal) dark road, dark path; (figurative) criminal underworld, gang, secret society

Definition

In modern usage, 黑道 refers to the criminal underworld or organized gangs (黑道人物 'a gangster') — the everyday opposite of 白道 (legitimate society). The literal 'dark road' sense is rare.

noun
(literal) dark roaddark path(figurative) criminal underworldgangsecret society

Examples

  • ，黑道。
    Zuó wǎn nà tiáo lù méi yǒu dēng, zhēn shì yì tiáo hēi dào.
    Last night that road had no lights; it was truly a dark path.
  • 黑道，。
    Tā yǐ qián zài hēi dào lǐ zuò shì, hòu lái bèi zhuā le.
    He used to work in the underworld and later got caught.
  • 黑道。
    Jǐng fāng zuì jìn dǎ jī le zhè ge hēi dào zǔ zhī.
    The police recently cracked down on this gang organization.

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.

黑hēidark
道dàoroad

黑 dark and 道 road combine for a dark path, used for the criminal underworld.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 黑 seems to come from drawing a head marked with dots, usually read as facial tattoos.

Open 黑 →

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
行行xíngstreet
止止zhǐfoot
Sound part声符shēngfú
𩠐
首shǒu道dào
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

Early 道 showed a street 行, a foot 止, and a part written 首 or 𩠐; the right part of 行 later disappeared.

Open 道 →
Appears in
Crime & Police

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