同情心 (tóng qíng xīn) — sympathy; compassion | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

sympathycompassion

Examples

同情心。
Tā duì qióng rén hěn yǒu tóng qíng xīn.
He has a lot of sympathy for poor people.
，同情心。
Tīng dào tā de gù shi, wǒ xīn zhōng chōng mǎn le tóng qíng xīn.
Hearing her story, my heart was filled with sympathy.
同情心，。
Wǒ men xū yào gèng duō de tóng qíng xīn, ér bú shì lěng mò.
We need more sympathy, not indifference.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

同情sympathy

同tóngsame情qíngfeeling

偏正Modifier + head

同情 means shared feeling, with 同 same and 情 feeling, and 心 is the heart, so it is a heart of sympathy.

Characters in this word

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

同 originally drew a pipe. It is the old form of 筒.

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

心心xīnheart

Sound part声符shēngfú

青

青qīng情qíng

Same sound today

情 shows 心 (heart) beside 青, which gives the sound. The heart part points to feelings and inner states.

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.

Appears in

Emotions & Feelings

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