世界

Etymology & Components

The Chinese word 世界 (shìjiè) for "world" is composed of two characters: 世 (shì) and 界 (jiè). The character 世 originally meant "generation" or "age", and was often used in the sense of "the world of man" or "the human world". The character 界 originally meant "boundary" or "limit", and was often used in the sense of "the world of nature" or "the physical world". When the two characters are combined, they form the word 世界, which refers to the entire universe, including both the human world and the natural world.The word 世界 has been used in Chinese for centuries, and has been borrowed into many other languages, including Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. In English, the word "world" is derived from the Old English word "weorold", which is thought to be related to the Germanic word "werold", meaning "age" or "lifetime". The word "world" has a similar meaning to the Chinese word 世界, and is used to refer to the entire universe, including both the Earth and the rest of the cosmos.