水手

• Pinyin: shuǐ shǒu
• Hanzi breakdown: 水 = water (the sea); 手 = hand (person who works with their hands) — a hand who works on the water

Meaning

Sailor; seaman. A person who works on a ship, especially as a member of the crew handling ropes, sails, or deck operations.

A romantic and adventurous term in Chinese popular culture. The 1988 hit song 水手 by Zheng Zhihua romanticised the life of a sailor. In formal maritime contexts, 船员 is more common for crew and 海员 for merchant seafarers.

Examples

1. 年轻时，他是一名在太平洋上航行的水手。 When he was young, he was a sailor who traveled across the Pacific.
2. 歌曲里的水手形象充满了漂泊与思乡之情。 The sailor in the song embodies a life of drifting and homesickness.
3. 船长召集所有水手，布置应对风暴的紧急预案。 The captain gathered all the sailors and assigned an emergency plan for dealing with the storm.

Usage Guide

Context: maritime, literature, popular culture

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 这位老水手走过了七大洋，见过无数壮阔的海上日出。(This old sailor had traversed all seven seas and witnessed countless magnificent sunrises over the ocean.)
• 在那个航海时代，成为一名水手意味着要随时面对大海的风险与挑战。(In that age of seafaring, becoming a sailor meant facing the risks and challenges of the ocean at any moment.)

Don't Say

• 水手 and 渔夫 (fisherman) are not interchangeable — 水手 works on a ship as crew, while 渔夫 fishes for a living; the occupations and contexts differ

Origin & History

水 (water) + 手 (hand, person skilled at something) — a person skilled in working with water/at sea

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal