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复发 (fù fā) — to recur, to relapse (of illness, bad habits, etc.)

Definition

复发 means an illness or bad habit comes BACK after recovery — always about a return to a prior bad state, unlike 恢复 (to recover) or 复苏 (to revive economically/medically). Often used in medical and addiction contexts.

verb
to recurto relapse (of illness, bad habits, etc.)

Examples

  • 复发。
    Tā de jiù bìng yòu fù fā le.
    His old disease recurred again.
  • ，复发。
    Yī shēng jǐng gào tā bú yào chōu yān, fǒu zé kě néng fù fā.
    The doctor warned him not to smoke, otherwise he might relapse.
  • ，复发。
    Tā nǔ lì jiǎn féi, dàn hòu lái hái shì fù fā le.
    She worked hard to lose weight, but later relapsed.

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.

复fùagain
发fāoccur

复 (again) and 发 (occur) together mean to happen again after a pause.

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 復; 复 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 复 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (复习, 恢复) it is 復; in others (复印, 复杂) (答复, 反复) it is 複 or 覆.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
彳彳chìwalk
Sound part声符shēngfú
复
复fù復fù
Same sound today

The traditional form 復 combines 彳, a walking part, with 复, a sound part, to show walking back and forth.

Open 复 →

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.

Open 发 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Illness & Symptoms

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.