知識 - means knowledge 分 - point 子 - son (or person of)
Now 知識分子 is generally translated as intellectual, person of intelligence.
What I wonder if the words can be interpreted in different conjunction.
Intuition is subtle, 'pointed' knowledge, so why not?
And what is the general rule of translating complex words - is that appropriate way to pick them apart giving them slightly different meaning?
分 - point 子 - son (or person of)
No, '分子' is a compound word. It means 'elements'
You already knew 知識 means 'knowledge'. Most Chinese words are compound words like it.
The literal meaning of 知識分子 is 'intellectual element'
The term 'element' here refers to 'element in the society' which refers to 'people'
'Intellectual'; 'person of intelligence' are correct translation for '知識分子'
When describe the make up of a society, we often group people into fields or classes. For example, 工人(worker) are the majority of the population, therefore we would call them 工人階級(worker class) or 工人社群(worker group). The number of scholars in comparison, is quite tiny. That's why we don't usually see intellectual as a class or group in a population, but rather, as individual elements.
*Similarly, the number of criminals among the population is also very small, that's why we call them 犯罪分子 criminals elements
