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亡命 (wáng mìng) — to flee, to go into exile (to escape danger); to be desperate, to risk one's life (esp. in 亡命徒)

Definition

亡命 means 'to flee for one's life' — usually used in the fixed phrase 亡命之徒 ('desperado / outlaw who risks everything'). It's a strong, literary word, not for ordinary travel.

verb
to fleeto go into exile (to escape danger)to be desperateto risk one's life (esp. in 亡命徒)

Examples

  • 亡命，。
    Tā zài zhàn zhēng zhōng wáng mìng, táo dào le guó wài.
    He fled during the war and escaped abroad.
  • 。
    Nà xiē wáng mìng zhī tú shén me dōu zuò dé chū lái.
    Those desperados are capable of anything.
  • ，，。
    Wèi le huó mìng, tā yǐ rán wáng le mìng, yuǎn zǒu tā xiāng.
    To survive, he had already fled and gone far away to a foreign land.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

亡wángflee
命mìnglife

亡 (flee) + 命 (life) gives the sense of fleeing for one's life.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The shape originally marked a knife's cutting edge with a line.

Open 亡 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
令
令lìng命mìng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

命 combines 口, a mouth, with 令, which gives the sound.

Open 命 →
Appears in
Crime & PoliceSafety & Danger

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