购物

Etymology & Components

The Chinese word 购物 (gòuwù) for "shopping" is a compound of two characters: 购 (gòu) and 物 (wù). The character 购 originally meant "to buy" or "to purchase," and it is composed of the radical 贝 (bèi), which represents money or wealth, and the phonetic component 互 (hù), which suggests the idea of exchange or barter. The character 物 originally meant "thing" or "object," and it is composed of the radical 勿 (wù), which represents negation or prohibition, and the phonetic component 勿 (wù), which suggests the idea of existence or presence. When combined, the characters 购 and 物 form the compound 购物, which literally means "to buy things" or "to purchase goods." This compound has become the standard Chinese word for "shopping" and is widely used in both spoken and written language.