xian
/ʃiæn/ noun, proper noun
Forms xians hsien Xtian
- noun (China, Taiwan) An administrative subdivision of imperial, republican, and communist China roughly equivalent to counties, now distinguished from the more urban "districts" (qu). (Alternative form of hsien for Taiwan (ROC).)
- proper noun A surname from Chinese.
Synonyms
Etymology
From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 縣 /县.
An alternative capitalization of Xian.
Borrowed from Chinese 咸 (Xián).
c. late 20th c., from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Chinese 西安 (Xī'ān, “Western Peace”), without syllable-dividing mark (隔音符號/隔音符号 (géyīn fúhào)).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “xian”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details