noun #10,766

Meanings

  1. 1 government office; official residence
  2. 2 mansion; prefecture

Examples

HSK 5
Zhè shì yī zuò gǔlǎo de wáng fǔ.
This is an ancient royal mansion.
HSK 6
Zhèngfǔ chūtái le xīn de zhèngcè.
The government introduced new policies.

Tips

usage
is in 政府 (government), 总统府 (presidential palace), and 王府 (prince's mansion). Historically it referred to a prefecture-level administrative unit.

Components

radical
广 yǎn
shelter; building radical
Top-left shelter radical 广 - pictograph of a roof attached to a wall on one side, the indexing component. Marks as a building or institution, specifically a government office or official residence (政府 government, 王府 prince's mansion). Same radical heads temple, storehouse, bed - all sheltered spaces.
phonetic
to hand over; pay (phonetic, with semantic flavour)
Tucked under the roof sits - person plus hand, depicting one person handing something to another. Supplies the sound: fù shifts to fǔ, tone change only. Faint semantic bonus: a is exactly the building where documents and authority are handed over.

Stroke Order