What does preliminary work mean?

What does "work" in workshop mean?

  • This is more of a translation problem. Workshop is translated to Chinese as "工作坊" where 工作 means "to work" and 坊 basically means "place". My question is regarding the "work" - does the "work" in workshop the same as "to work", or more of "a piece of work/artwork"? If it is the latter, the translation does not hold. I tried to search dictionaries online but got no help on the origin of the word. Thank you!

  • Answer:

    Chinese translation depends on the intricacies of the writing system, with which I am not familiar. However, your question about the "work-" part in the compound-turned-perfectly-regular-noun "workshop" I can answer. You ask whether it is a verb, "to work" or a noun, "a piece of work/artwork". It is neither. The question reflects the Chinese writing system but not how natural languages work. In a compound noun (from which the noun "workshop" descends), both particles are considered nouns and it means "work" as in "I work [verb]. My work [noun] is painting pictures. A place where work [noun] takes place can be called a shop. I paint at my workshop". The meaning mentioned in another comment, of where a one-off group gets together to advance in a particular field (with little or no concrete reference to a physical location), is secondary and metaphorical. (In some places, however, it's more common than the aforementioned sense).

Jonathan H. Avidan at Quora Visit the source

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Other answers

Kemo has a great definition for the broader definition, but workshop can also mean a literal workshop, like a fabrication/manufacturing/service place. So if you get "little factory" or "garage" or something like that in the dictionary's definition, be careful which meaning is intended.

Brian Kelly

Training class or seminar in which the participants work individually and in groups to solve actual work related tasks to gain hands-on experience.

Lamar Kareem

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