悍匪 (hàn fěi) — brutal bandit, ferocious criminal

Definition

悍匪 is a journalistic/literary term for a violent, dangerous criminal — stronger and more dramatic than the everyday 强盗 or 罪犯. Often seen in news reports about armed, fleeing suspects.

noun
brutal banditferocious criminal

Examples

  • 悍匪。
    Nà ge hàn fěi zhōng yú bèi zhuā zhù le.
    That brutal bandit was finally caught.
  • 悍匪。
    Jǐng fāng zhèng zài zhuī bǔ yì míng hàn fěi.
    The police are pursuing a ferocious criminal.
  • 悍匪，。
    Zhè ge hàn fěi fēi cháng wēi xiǎn, dà jiā yào xiǎo xīn.
    This brutal bandit is very dangerous, everyone be careful.

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.

悍hànfierce
匪fěibandit

The fierce idea in 悍 and the bandit idea in 匪 combine into a brutal criminal.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 悍 →

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
匚匚fāngbox
Sound part声符shēngfú
非
非fēi匪fěi
Same sound today

匪 is built from 匚, a box, plus 非, which gives the sound.

Open 匪 →

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