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/
Bernard
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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