馬路
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See also: 马路
Chinese
| horse; surname | road; path; way | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| trad. (馬路) | 馬 | 路 | |
| simp. (马路) | 马 | 路 | |
Etymology
First attested in the 4th century BC in Zuo Zhuan, meaning “wide road used for horses”. How this came to be used as a general term for “paved road; street” is debated. Common theories include:
- A natural semantic evolution (± modern repurposing) of the literary Chinese term.
- A phono-semantic matching of English macadam (the modern method of road construction) + 路 (“road”), originally used in Shanghainese.
Pronunciation
Noun
馬路
- (literary, archaic) wide road used for horses and horse-drawn carriages
- (modern usage) wide and flat road for the passage of vehicles; paved road; (by extension) road; street (Classifier: 條／条 m)