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无畏 (wú wèi) — fearless, dauntless

Definition

adjective
fearlessdauntless

Examples

  • ，无畏。
    Miàn duì wēi xiǎn, tā biǎo xiàn dé shí fēn wú wèi.
    Facing danger, he appeared very fearless.
  • 无畏。
    Tā nà zhǒng wú wèi de jīng shén zhí dé wǒ men xué xí.
    Her fearless spirit is worth learning from.
  • 无畏。
    Yǒng shì men wú wèi de chōng xiàng dí rén.
    The warriors fearlessly charged at the enemy.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

无wúlack
畏wèifear

“无” expresses lacking, and “畏” gives fear, together meaning fearless.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

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
卜卜bǔ
Sound part声符shēngfú
鬼
鬼guǐ畏wèi
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

An early form of 畏 drew a ghost 鬼 holding a stick. Later, 卜 was used as the meaning part and 鬼 as the sound part.

Open 畏 →
Appears in
Personality & Traits

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