gōng wù yuán
civil servant; public functionary
他是一名公务员。
Tā shì yī míng gōngwùyuán.
He is a civil servant.
公务员的工作很辛苦。
Gōngwùyuán de gōngzuò hěn xīnkǔ.
The work of civil servants is very hard.
公务员的工资很高。
Gōngwùyuán de gōngzī hěn gāo.
The salary of civil servants is very high.
国家公务员 (guójiā gōngwùyuán)
national civil servant
政府工作人员 (zhèngfǔ gōngzuò rényuán)
government employee
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The Chinese word 公务员 (gōngwùyuán) is a compound of two characters: 公务 (gōngwù) and 员 (yuán). 公务 means "public affairs" or "official business", while 员 means "official" or "staff member". Together, 公务员 refers to someone who works for the government or a public organization.The character 公 (gōng) originally meant "common" or "public", and it was often used in contrast to the character 私 (sī), which meant "private". The character 务 (wù) originally meant "to do" or "to work", and it was often used in combination with other characters to form verbs. The character 员 (yuán) originally meant "a person who is employed", and it was often used to refer to government officials or staff members.The word 公务员 first appeared in the late 19th century, when it was used to refer to government officials in the Qing Dynasty. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the word 公务员 was adopted as the official term for government employees. Today, 公务员 is a common word in Chinese, and it is used to refer to anyone who works for the government or a public organization.
