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变心 (biàn xīn) — to fall out of love, to become unfaithful (in a romantic relationship)

Definition

Means 'to change one's heart' — to stop loving or stop being faithful to a romantic partner. 变心 is a V+N verb-object phrase that takes the perfective 了 or the particle 过, as in 变过心.

verb
to fall out of loveto become unfaithful (in a romantic relationship)

Examples

  • 变心。
    Tā jié hūn hòu hěn kuài jiù biàn xīn le.
    He fell out of love soon after getting married.
  • 。
    Tā cóng lái méi yǒu duì zhàng fu biàn guò xīn.
    She has never been unfaithful to her husband.
  • 变心。
    Liàn ài zhōng zuì pà de jiù shì yì fāng biàn xīn.
    What people fear most in a relationship is one partner changing their heart.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

变biànchange
心xīnheart

变 (change) and 心 (heart/mind) combine to mean a change of affection.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 變; 变 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
攴攴pū
Sound part声符shēngfú
䜌
䜌䜌變biàn
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 變 uses 䜌 as a sound part and 攴 as a meaning part.

Open 变 →

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

The shape of 心 comes from a drawing of a heart, now highly stylized.

Open 心 →
Appears in
Romance & Marriage

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