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痛心 (tòng xīn) — grieved; pained; deeply distressed

Definition

Literally 'painful to the heart': distress over something one sees as wrong or regrettable, stronger than 伤心 (personal sadness). Often used for events rather than personal loss, close to 悲痛 but with more moral or frustrated edge.

adjective
grievedpaineddeeply distressed

Examples

  • ，痛心。
    Tīng dào zhè ge xiāo xi, tā gǎn dào shí fēn tòng xīn.
    Hearing this news, he felt very grieved.
  • 痛心。
    Zhè zhǒng làng fèi xíng wéi ràng suǒ yǒu lǎo shī dōu tòng xīn bù yǐ.
    This kind of wasteful behavior made all the teachers feel deeply pained.
  • 痛心。
    Tā duì zì jǐ de cuò wù gǎn dào fēi cháng tòng xīn.
    He felt very pained by his own mistake.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

痛tònghurt
心xīnheart

痛 'hurt' and 心 'heart' give a hurting heart, hence deep grief.

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
疒疒nèillness
Sound part声符shēngfú
甬
甬yǒng痛tòng
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The 疒 part means illness, and 甬 gives the sound; together they form 痛, meaning pain or hurt.

Open 痛 →

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 3.0 Level 7-9Emotions & Feelings

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