弑父 (shì fù) — (verb-object) to commit patricide, to murder one's own father

Definition

弑父 is a formal, literary verb-object phrase meaning 'to murder one's own father', almost always used in historical or narrative writing — not in everyday speech.

verb
(verb-object) to commit patricideto murder one's own father

Examples

  • ，弑父。
    Zhè wèi guó jūn wèi le duó qǔ wáng wèi, jìng rán shì fù duó wèi.
    This monarch actually killed his father to seize the throne.
  • 弑父。
    Lì shǐ shàng jì zǎi le bù shǎo shì fù de gù shi.
    History records quite a few stories of patricide.
  • ，。
    Tā shì le fù, zhōng shēn bēi fù zhe liáng xīn de qiǎn zé.
    He killed his father and carried the guilt on his conscience for life.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

弑shìkill
父fùfather

弑 means to kill a parent or ruler, and 父 is father, so the word means killing one's father.

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 弒; 弑 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
殺殺shāto kill
Sound part声符shēngfú
式
式shì弒shì
Same sound today

The traditional form 弒 shows 殺 (to kill) beside 式 as a sound part; the simplified 弑 is a later abbreviation.

Open 弑 →

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

The shape 父 shows a hand holding a stone blade, referring to a man working with a stone axe.

Open 父 →

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