翁 wēng old man
old man; father; father-in-law
怎么记住“翁”: 公 public + 羽 feather = old man. Fair to both teams at every public match, the referee with a feather in his cap is the village's favourite old man.
部件结构
形声 · Meaning + sound · 假借 borrowed for its sound
One part gives the meaning, the other gives the sound.
翁 = 公 public + 羽 feather
- 公 public sound
- 八 eight
- 厶 private
- 羽 feather meaning
Fair to both teams at every public match, the referee with a feather in his cap is the village's favourite old man.
How it came to be
The feathers give the meaning and the sign for public the sound; the word first meant neck feathers and was later borrowed for old man.
用法
- A literary word for "old man," but in modern Chinese it mostly survives as a suffix meaning "a person of a certain (usually wealthy) kind": 富翁 (fùwēng) a rich man, 百万富翁 (bǎiwàn fùwēng) a millionaire.
- Also "father / father-in-law" in old usage; rarely stands alone today outside set words like 老翁 (lǎowēng) old man.