私有

• Pinyin: sī yǒu
• Hanzi breakdown: 私 = 禾 (grain) + 厶 (private) — private, personal; 有 = 月 (moon/flesh) + 一 — to have, to possess

Meaning

To own privately; to possess privately. Also used adjectivally meaning privately owned or pertaining to private ownership.

A formal term central to legal, economic, and political discussions of property rights. 私有财产 (private property) and 私有制 (private ownership system) are key terms in debates about economic systems. In software and technology, 私有 also refers to private access modifiers or proprietary systems, paralleling the English 'private.'

Examples

1. 产权改革的核心议题之一是如何界定并保护公民的私有财产权。 One of the core issues in property-rights reform is how to define and protect citizens’ private property rights.
2. 这批土地由国家收回后，将统一规划用于公共设施建设，不得私有。 After the state reclaimed this land, it will be planned uniformly for public facilities and cannot be privately owned.
3. 在混合所有制经济体系中，私有资本与国有资本并存，共同参与市场竞争。 In a mixed-ownership economy, private capital and state-owned capital coexist and participate together in market competition.

Usage Guide

Context: legal, economics, property, formal writing

Tone: formal

Do Say

• 完善私有产权保护体系，是增强市场主体信心、激发社会创新活力的重要制度保障。(Improving the system for protecting private property rights is an important institutional safeguard for boosting the confidence of market participants and stimulating social innovation.)
• 这项立法明确规定，任何机构不得以行政手段强制剥夺公民合法的私有财产。(This legislation explicitly stipulates that no institution may use administrative means to forcibly deprive citizens of their lawfully held private property.)

Don't Say

• 不要将 私有 与 私人 完全混用 — 私有 specifically emphasises the property or ownership dimension (private ownership), while 私人 more broadly refers to the personal or non-public nature of something such as 私人关系 or 私人信息

Origin & History

私 (private) + 有 (to have, to possess) — to possess privately; the state of being under private ownership rather than collective or state ownership

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal