心跳 (xīn tiào) — (of the heart) to beat; to have a heartbeat | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

心 (heart) + 跳 (jump) literally: the beating of the heart. Use as a noun for the heartbeat itself or as a verb with 得 to describe how it feels ('heart beating very fast').

verb

(of the heart) to beatto have a heartbeat

Examples

，心跳。
Tā pǎo le yì gōng lǐ, xīn tiào dé hěn lì hài.
After running a kilometer, his heart was beating very hard.
，心跳。
Wǒ jiàn dào tā shí, xīn tiào tū rán jiā kuài le.
When I saw her, my heart suddenly started racing.
，心跳。
Bié jǐn zhāng, xīn tiào zhèng cháng jiù méi yǒu wèn tí.
Don't be nervous — if your heartbeat is normal, there's nothing wrong.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

'心' is the heart and '跳' is beating, so together they describe the heart beating.

Characters in this word

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.

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

足足zúfoot

Sound part声符shēngfú

兆

兆zhào跳tiào

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

跳 pairs 足 (foot) with 兆, which supplies the sound; the foot part shows the action is done with the feet.

Appears in

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