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狠心 (hěn xīn) — cruel-hearted, heartless; to harden one's heart, to make a painful decision

Definition

Used for people or actions that are unfeelingly cruel, or for forcing oneself to make a painful decision despite emotion. As a verb phrase, 狠下心来 means to steel oneself.

adjective
cruel-heartedheartlessto harden one's heartto make a painful decision

Examples

  • 狠心。
    Tā zhēn shì yí gè hěn xīn de rén.
    He is truly a heartless person.
  • 狠心。
    Tā hěn xīn xià xīn lái lí kāi le jiā.
    She hardened her heart and left home.
  • 狠心。
    Tā hěn xīn dì jù jué le péng you de bāng zhù.
    He heartlessly refused his friend's help.

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.

狠hěncruel
心xīnheart

"狠" cruel and "心" heart combine to picture a cruel heart, hence merciless or steeled.

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
犭Written in full as犬quǎn
Sound part声符shēngfú
艮
艮gèn狠hěn
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In 狠, the left part 犭 is a shortened form of 犬; the right part 艮 gives the sound.

Open 狠 →

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

The shape of 心 comes from a drawing of a heart, now highly stylized.

Open 心 →
Appears in
HSK 2.0 Level 6Personality & Traits

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