发狂 (fā kuáng) — to go mad; to lose one's mind; to become frantic

Definition

Means 'to go mad / lose one's mind' — usually temporary, triggered by emotion or a shocking event, not a permanent state.

verb

to go madto lose one's mindto become frantic

发狂。
Tā tīng dào zhè ge xiāo xi hòu jiǎn zhí fā kuáng le.
He practically went mad after hearing this news.
，。
Tā céng jīng fā guò yí cì kuáng, bǎ jiā lǐ suǒ yǒu dōng xī dōu shuāi le.
She once had a fit of madness and smashed everything in the house.
。
Nà zhī gǒu xiàng fā kuáng yí yàng dào chù luàn pǎo.
That dog was running around wildly as if it had gone mad.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

发fāemit/develop

发 means emit or develop and 狂 means madness; together they mean go mad.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 發; 发 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 发 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (爆发, 出发) it is 發; in others (理发, 头发) it is 髮.

The form 發, which 发 stands for in many words, was originally drawn as a bow firing an arrow.

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

犭Written in full as犬quǎndog

Sound part声符shēngfú

㞷

㞷㞷狂kuáng

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

狂 pairs 犭 (dog) with 㞷, which gives the sound; 㞷 is an old form of a character meaning 'to go'.

Appears in