火爆 (huǒ bào) — (of a person) fiery, hot-tempered; (of a business, event, etc.) extremely popular, booming, sizzling

Definition

火爆 covers both 'fiery/hot-tempered' (a person) and 'booming/extremely popular' (a business, event). For the popular sense, 红火 is more typical of steady, ongoing prosperity; 火爆 highlights sudden, explosive popularity.

adjective
(of a person) fieryhot-tempered(of a business, event, etc.) extremely popularboomingsizzling

Examples

  • 火爆
    Tā pí qi huǒ bào, dòng bu dòng jiù fā huǒ.
    He has a fiery temper and flares up at the slightest thing.
  • 火爆
    Nà jiā cān tīng shēng yì fēi cháng huǒ bào, měi tiān pái duì de rén hěn duō.
    That restaurant's business is booming; a lot of people queue up every day.
  • 火爆
    Zhè ge yǎn chàng huì de mén piào gāng kāi shòu jiù bèi yì qiǎng ér kōng, shí zài tài huǒ bào le.
    The tickets for this concert were snapped up as soon as they went on sale—it's simply too popular.

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.

bàoexplosive

The image of 火 as fire and 爆 as bursting intensity combine to suggest a hot temper or a booming scene.

Characters in this word

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

火 is a simple drawing of a fire, with flames shown rising upward.

Open 火 →

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
Sound part声符shēngfú
bàobào
Same sound today

爆 combines 火 (fire) with 暴, which supplies the sound and also originally meant violence.

Open 爆 →

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