About

The Chinese word **拖拉机 (tuōlājī)** for "tractor" is a classic example of a **phonetic-semantic compound loanword**. It is formed by combining the transliterated sounds of the English word "tractor"—rendered as **拖拉 (tuōlā)**—with the meaningful Chinese character **机 (jī)**, which means "machine." This structure allows the word to both approximate the foreign sound and immediately convey its functional category, creating a blended term that is phonetically suggestive and semantically transparent to Chinese speakers.

Word Definition - 拖拉机

tuō lā jī tractor; CL:臺|台[tái]