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坏人 (huài rén) — bad person, evildoer, villain

Definition

noun
bad personevildoervillain
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 坏人。
    Zhè ge huài rén zhōng yú bèi zhuā zhù le.
    This bad person was finally caught.
  • 坏人。
    Diàn yǐng lǐ de nà ge huài rén zuì hòu hòu huǐ le.
    The villain in the movie eventually regretted it.
  • 坏人。
    Wǒ men bù néng suí biàn shuō bié rén shì huài rén.
    We can't casually call other people bad people.

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.

坏huàibad
人rénperson

坏 means bad and 人 means person, giving a bad person.

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 壞; 坏 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
土土tǔearth
Sound part声符shēngfú
褱
褱huái壞huài
Same sound today

For the traditional form 壞, 土 (earth) is the meaning part and 褱 supplies the sound; earth is used because something that rots eventually becomes earth. This is about 壞, not the simplified 坏.

Open 坏 →

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →
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