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私下 (sī xià) — (noun) private matters; privacy; personal affairs

Definition

私下 refers to doing something in private, between a few people, away from the public eye. Closer in feel to 'private/personal matters' (私事) than to 隐私 (secrets/privacy as a right).

noun
private mattersprivacypersonal affairs

Examples

  • 私下，。
    Zhè xiē shì gōng sī de sī xià, bú yào duì wài shuō.
    These are the company's private matters, don't speak about them externally.
  • 私下。
    Tā hěn shǎo hé bié rén shuō zì jǐ de sī xià.
    He rarely talks about his private matters with others.
  • 私下，。
    Guān yú sī xià de wèn tí, wǒ men kě yǐ wǎn diǎn tǎo lùn.
    Regarding private matters, we can discuss them later.

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.

私sīprivate
下xiàprivate setting

私 gives the sense of private, and 下 places it in a private setting.

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
禾禾hé
Sound part声符shēngfú
厶
厶sī私sī
Same sound today

私 combines 禾 and 厶; 厶 originally represented the word, and 禾 was added later.

Open 私 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

下 is drawn as a short horizontal line below a long curved line.

Open 下 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Abstract Concepts5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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