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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

千言萬語

qiānyánwànyǔ
thousands and thousands of words; to have much to say
  • 千言万语
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The phrase describes an overwhelming abundance of speech, visualized here as a mountain of swirling scrolls representing endless words.
The phrase describes an overwhelming abundance of speech, visualized here as a mountain of swirling scrolls representing endless words.

Origin

The phrase 千言萬語 is formed by combining the characters 千 (thousand), 言 (to say; to speak; to talk), 萬 (the original form of 蠆／虿, “scorpion”), and 語 (to speak; to say). It is used to describe an extremely large amount of speech.

Each component contains internal semantic and phonetic elements. The character 千 consists of the semantic component 一 (one) and the phonetic component 人 (man; person; people). The character 語 is composed of the semantic component 言 (to say; to speak; to talk) and the phonetic component 吾 (I). Within 吾, the semantic component is 口 (mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity) and the phonetic component is 五 (five).

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

「千言萬語」由四個漢字組成。其中「千」字包含意符「一」與音符「人」；「言」字本身具有說、談、講的意思；「萬」字的原始字形為「蠆／虿」（chài，意指蠍子）；「語」字則是由意符「言」與音符「吾」組成，而「吾」字包含意符「口」與音符「五」。

在字形結構上，「語」字透過「言」來表達說話的語義。整體而言，這個詞彙透過「千」、「言」、「萬」、「語」的組合，用來形容說話的內容極其豐富，有著千言萬語要表達。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • characterChinese千 “thousand”
    • meaningChinese一 “one”
    • soundChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
  • characterChinese言 “to say; to speak; to talk”
  • characterChinese萬 “original form of 蠆／虿 (chài, “scorpion”)”
  • characterChinese語 “to speak; to say”
    • soundChinese吾 “I”
      • soundChinese五 “five”
      • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
Wiktionary etymology text

No etymology text yet. The graph shows what is known from the sources.

Meanings

phrase
  1. thousands and thousands of words; to have much to say

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 許許多多的言語。形容要說的話極多。 例：碰到多年不見的好友，真有千言萬語不知從何說起的感覺。

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

Sources

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0