Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
countertomy. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
countertomy, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
countertomy in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
countertomy you have here. The definition of the word
countertomy will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
countertomy, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From counter- + -tomy, a calque of Chinese 反切.
Noun
countertomy
- (rare) Fanqie.
1994, The journal of Asian studies:Here we need mention only such momentous developments as the creation of countertomy or cut-and-splice pseudospelling (fan-ch'ieh), generally attributed for the last thousand years to the Buddhists, which for the first time enabled Chinese to indicate the pronunciation of unknown graphs fairly unambiguously and analytically [...].
2010, Victor H. Mair, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 40:Another related phenomenon, which lasted from at least the latter part of the tenth century until the end of the nineteenth century, was the practice of writing fan-ch'ieh (countertomy or reverse cutting), Buddhist-inspired pseudo-spellings as one graph instead of three.