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无耻 (wú chǐ) — shameless, brazen

Definition

无耻 means 'shameless' — a strong moral judgment of someone's character or behavior. Sharper than 可耻 (which judges an act as disgraceful); pairs with 羞耻, the feeling of shame itself.

adjective
shamelessbrazen

Examples

  • 无耻。
    Tā zhēn shì gè wú chǐ de rén.
    He's truly a shameless person.
  • 无耻。
    Zhè zhǒng wú chǐ de xíng wéi ràng rén fèn nù.
    This kind of shameless behavior is infuriating.
  • 无耻。
    Tā jū rán shuō chū zhè yàng wú chǐ de huà.
    He actually said such shameless words.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

无wúwithout
耻chǐshame

Without and shame combine to mean having no sense of shame.

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
耳耳ěr
Sound part声符shēngfú
止
止zhǐ耻chǐ
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

耻 is written with 耳 (ear) on the left and 止 on the right. Here 止 gives the sound, while 耳 is the meaning part.

Open 耻 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Personality & Traits

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