奴隶
núlì
The Chinese word for slave is 奴隶 (núlì).
奴隶 refers to a person owned by another. It is used both literally to describe historical chattel slavery and metaphorically to describe someone who is controlled by a concept, habit or addiction, such as being a slave to money or fashion.
Meaning: person owned by another (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
The word is composed of 奴 (nǔ), meaning servant or slave and 隶 (lì), meaning subordinate or follower.
How does it change in a sentence?
As a countable noun, 奴隶 can be preceded by measure words such as 个 (gè) or, in more formal contexts, 名 (míng).
How do you pronounce it?
núlì
Did you know?
- In some Chinese dialects and historical contexts, the word 奴 was used by servants as a humble first-person pronoun to refer to themselves when speaking to a master.
- In modern Chinese internet slang, the character 奴 (nǔ) is often used as a suffix to describe people who are obsessively devoted to certain things, such as 'fans' or 'addicts'.
- The component 隶 (lì) in 奴隶 originally referred to a type of official record or registry used to track household members and subordinates.
Examples in context
- 不要成为金钱的奴隶。Don't be a slave to money.This sentence illustrates using 奴隶 metaphorically regarding money.Tatoeba #10201112 by slo_oth, translation #5215200 by CarpeLanam
- 这个人是您的奴隶，是吧？This person is your slave, right?This sentence shows a literal usage of 奴隶 in a questioning context.Tatoeba #939899 by GlossaMatik, translation #939895 by FeuDRenais2
- 我是一个奴隶。I'm a slave.This sentence provides a simple example of a direct statement using 奴隶.Tatoeba #10737544 by megamanenm, translation #10204809 by shekitten
- 2 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Two students are discussing a history textbook in a library.
- 俊杰 Junjie这本书在讨论古代的奴隶制度。Zhè běn shū zài tǎolùn gǔdài de núlì zhìdù.This book is discussing the slave system of ancient times.
- 晓雯 Xiaowen那时候奴隶的生活一定很艰苦。Nà shíhòu núlì de shēnghuó yīdìng hěn jiānkǔ.The life of a slave must have been very hard back then.
- 俊杰 Junjie是的，他们没有任何自由。Shì de, tāmen méiyǒu rènhé zìyóu.Yes, they had no freedom at all.
- 晓雯 Xiaowen这种制度真的太残酷了。Zhè zhǒng zhìdù zhēnde tài cánkù le.This kind of system was truly too cruel.
Sources
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
