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情面 (qíng miàn) — (n.) personal feelings and social face that lead one to be lenient or avoid offending someone in a relationship

Definition

情面 (qíngmiàn) is 'personal feelings / face' — the social consideration that makes people go easy on someone to avoid offending them. Often appears with 不讲 / 不顾 / 顾 (ignore / consider) to say whether someone cares about sparing feelings.

noun
(n.) personal feelings and social face that lead one to be lenient or avoid offending someone in a relationship

Examples

  • 情面，。
    Tā tài gù qíng miàn, jié guǒ shén me shì dōu bù gǎn shuō.
    He cares too much about sparing feelings, so in the end he doesn't dare say anything.
  • ，。
    Zhè ge lǎo bǎn bàn shì bù jiǎng qíng miàn, zhī kàn jié guǒ.
    This boss handles things without regard for personal feelings — he only looks at results.
  • 情面。
    Tā shí zài lā bú xià qíng miàn lái jù jué péng you.
    He really couldn't bring himself to refuse his friend without losing face.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

情qíngrelationship/feeling
面miànface

情 (relationship/feeling) and 面 (face) together refer to the social face that makes people lenient.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
心心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
青
青qīng情qíng
Same sound today

情 shows 心 (heart) beside 青, which gives the sound. The heart part points to feelings and inner states.

Open 情 →

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

面 originally drew a man’s face, with one eye exaggerated; the horizontal stroke was added later.

Open 面 →
Appears in
Abstract ConceptsFriends & Social

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