老
Meanings
CC-CEDICT
- 1.prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity
- 2.old (of people)
- 3.venerable (person)
- 4.experienced
- 5.of long standing
- 6.always
- 7.all the time
- 8.of the past
- 9.very
- 10.outdated
- 11.(of meat etc) tough
CC-CEDICT · CC BY-SA
Wiktionary
- 1.old; aged; senior; elderly
- 2.old (as opposed to new); of long standing
- 3.outdated; old-fashioned
- 4.original; former
- 5.the elderly; one's elders
- 6.Used after the surname of an old person to address a venerable old person
- 7.experienced
- 8.to respect (the elderly, one's elders)
- 9.overcooked; tough; stringy; hard
- 10.stale; not fresh
- 11.always; all the time
- 12.very; quite
- 13.to die; to pass away (usually with 了 (le) or 掉 (diào))
- 14.Used before surnames to refer to heads or elder members of families.
- 15.Used by analogy in several other relationship terms.
- 16.Prefix for animals or people considered senior, fierce, and often awe-inspiring.
- 17.Prefix for nouns with negative impressions or connotations.
- 18.Prefix for nouns to express familiarity.
- 19.Used before nouns, especially names of ethnicities, places and countries, to form nouns.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Etymology
Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 人 (“man”) + 毛 (“hair”) + 匕 (“cane”) – a man with long hair (an old man), leaning on a cane. Compare top component to 孝 (OC *qʰruːs). Cognate to 考 (OC *kʰluːʔ); the most commonly cited example of 轉注 (“reciprocal meaning”). Unknown. Compare Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-raw (“withered, residue, corpse”), *rwat (“stiff, tough”), whence Burmese ရော် (rau, “wither, become overripe; age”), ရွတ် (rwat, “old, stiff, tough”). See also 古 (gǔ), 故 (gù). An old Sino-Vietnamese borrowing is rệu (“overripe, pulpy”).
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Stroke order
Components
Components from cjk-decomp · MIT
Example sentences
他很老。
He was very old.
老狗叫了。
The old dog barked.
湯姆不老。
Tom isn't old.
我在变老。
I'm getting old.
我不是老闆。
I'm not the boss.
我是個老師。
I am a teacher.
Sentences from Tatoeba · CC-BY 2.0 FR
More examples & usage (AI)
Synonyms
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Derived terms
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA