也就是说
yějiùshìshuō · HSK 7
word
🟰 也 also + 就是 is exactly + 说 say = that is to say, i.e.
Stacks four common words: 也 (also) + 就 (precisely) + 是 (is) + 说 (say). Literally also-just-is-say, used to restate something more plainly, like English i.e. or in other words.
也 — single-component pictograph
也 originated as a pictograph, traditionally interpreted as depicting a snake or a woman's basin/vessel — scholars debate the exact image. Its original concrete meaning was lost early, and by the classical period it was borrowed almost exclusively as a grammatical particle marking assertion or emphasis. In modern Chinese it means 'also' or 'too'.
就 — 京 (capital) + 尤 (especially)
Originally a compound suggesting going to a high place (京 depicts a tall building) to settle or accomplish something. Over time the meaning shifted from 'approach a high place' to 'go to,' then broadened to 'accomplish,' and finally to the modern grammatical senses 'then,' 'just,' or 'precisely.'
是 — sun 日 + 正 (correct/upright)
Originally a compound suggesting 'the sun 日 directly overhead'—straight, correct, true. From this concrete sense of 'right' or 'this very thing,' 是 came to mean 'this' as a demonstrative, and later the modern copula 'to be / is.' The 'correct' meaning survives in words like 是非 (right and wrong).
说 — speech radical 讠(言) + 兑
说 combines the speech radical 讠(言, 'words') with 兑, which acts as the phonetic component. The character originally meant 'to explain' or 'to speak,' and broadened to mean 'say' or 'talk.' The same graph is also read 'yuè' meaning 'pleased,' a sense later written 悦.