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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

東西南北

/tʊŋ⁵⁵ ɕi⁵⁵ nän³⁵ peɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
east, west, south and north; everywhere; all corners of the world
  • 東南西北
  • 南北東西
  • 东西南北
  • 东南西北
  • 南北东西
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The four characters combine to represent the cardinal directions, signifying every corner of the world.
The four characters combine to represent the cardinal directions, signifying every corner of the world.

Origin

The phrase 東西南北 is formed by combining four characters: 東 (east), 西 (west; western; occidental), 南 (south; southern), and 北 (north; northern).

According to the MOE Dictionary (國語辭典), the phrase refers to the four directions or all places (四方、各處).

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

「東西南北」是由四個漢字組成的詞組，分別由「東」、「西」、「南」、「北」組成。其中「東」代表東方，「西」代表西方，「南」代表南方，「北」代表北方。

根據《國語辭典》的定義，此詞組意指四方或各處。在實際應用中，它可以用來表示東、西、南、北四個方向，也可以用來指代世界上的所有角落或任何地方。

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

Lineage

  • characterChinese東 “east”
  • characterChinese西 “west; western; occidental”
  • characterChinese南 “south; southern”
  • characterChinese北 “north; northern”
Wiktionary etymology text

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

Meanings

phrase
  1. east, west, south and north; everywhere; all corners of the world

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 四方、各處。 例：這地方我沒來過，東西南北都分不清，只好沿途問路。

© 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