Chinese

青少年

/t͡ɕʰiŋ⁵⁵ ʂɑʊ̯⁵¹ ni̯ɛn³⁵/
young person; youth; adolescent; teenager
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 5

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
React Flow

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Origin

Blend of 青年 (qīngnián) + 少年 (shàonián).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese青年 “youth; adolescence (period)”
  • characterChinese青 “blue-green ("grue"); blue (of sky, stone etc.); green (of grass, plants, mountains etc.)”
    • soundChinese生 “to live; to subsist; to exist”
      • ideaChinese屮 “new birth of plant”
      • ideaChinese一 “one”
    • soundChinese井 “well (a hole sunk into the ground) (Classifier: 口; 眼)”
  • partChinese少年 “early youth (from ten to sixteen years old)”
  • characterChinese少 “few; little in number; less; not many”
  • characterChinese年 “year (in generic contexts)”
    • meaningChinese禾 “grain; cereal”
    • soundChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”

Sources