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有鬼 (yǒu guǐ) — (idiom) there is something fishy, something suspicious

Definition

Colloquial idiom used when you suspect something is wrong, hidden, or dishonest — roughly 'there's something fishy.' A speaker's gut-feeling reaction, not a factual accusation.

idiom
there is something fishysomething suspicious

Examples

  • 有鬼，？
    Zhè jiàn shì yǒu guǐ, tā wèi shén me tū rán zǒu le?
    There's something fishy about this — why did he suddenly leave?
  • ，有鬼？
    Nǐ zuì jìn zǒng shì duǒ zhe wǒ, shì bu shì yǒu guǐ?
    You've been avoiding me lately — is something suspicious going on?
  • ，有鬼。
    Tā de jiě shì tīng qǐ lái hěn hé lǐ, dàn wǒ zǒng jué de yǒu guǐ.
    His explanation sounds reasonable, but I still feel there's something fishy.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

有yǒuhave
鬼guǐghost

“有” means have and “鬼” means ghost; together they picture something hidden that makes a situation suspicious.

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
肉肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
又
又yòu有yǒu
Same sound today

The form 有 combines 又, used for its sound, with a shape from 肉, 'meat'; the hand-holding-meat story is a folk explanation, not shown in the oldest shape.

Open 有 →

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

鬼 originally drew a kneeling figure with an ugly face, perhaps a mask; the small lower right dot is a later added tail.

Open 鬼 →
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