馬路

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

Rime
Character 馬 路
Reading # 1/1 1/1
Initial (聲) 明 (4) 來 (37)
Final (韻) 麻 (98) 模 (23)
Tone (調) Rising (X) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open Open
Division (等) II I
Fanqie 莫下切 洛故切
Baxter maeX luH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/mˠaX/ /luoH/
Pan
Wuyun 		/mᵚaX/ /luoH/
Shao
Rongfen 		/maX/ /loH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/maɨX/ /lɔH/
Li
Rong 		/maX/ /loH/
Wang
Li 		/maX/ /luH/
Bernhard
Karlgren 		/maX/ /luoH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		mǎ lù
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		maa5 lou6
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 馬 路
Reading # 1/1 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		mǎ lù
Middle
Chinese 		‹ mæX › ‹ luH ›
Old
Chinese 		/*mˁraʔ/ /*Cə.rˁak-s/
English horse road

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 馬 路
Reading # 1/1 1/1
No. 8715 3856
Phonetic
component 		馬 各
Rime
group 		魚 暮
Rime
subdivision 		0 0
Corresponding
MC rime 		馬 路
Old
Chinese 		/*mraːʔ/ /*ɡ·raːɡs/

Noun

馬路

  1. (literary, archaic) wide road used for horses and horse-drawn carriages
  2. (modern usage) wide and flat road for the passage of vehicles; paved road; (by extension) road; street (Classifier: 條／条 m)
    過馬路／过马路  ―  guò mǎlù  ―  to cross the road
    馬路中央／马路中央  ―  mǎlù zhōngyāng  ―  the middle of the road

Synonyms

Derived terms

See also

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