TongTong
Sign in

私心 (sī xīn) — selfishness; selfish motive; egoism

Definition

A noun for selfish motives or personal bias, often in phrases like 私心太重 ('too selfish') or 没有私心 ('unselfish'). Concretely points to the motive behind an action, not selfishness as a character trait.

noun
selfishnessselfish motiveegoism

Examples

  • ，私心。
    Tā zuò shì zǒng shì xiān kǎo lǜ zì jǐ de lì yì, shuō míng tā sī xīn tài zhòng.
    He always considers his own interests first when doing things, which shows he has too much selfishness.
  • 私心，。
    Yí gè zhēn zhèng de hǎo lǐng dǎo yīng gāi méi yǒu sī xīn, quán xīn quán yì wèi jí tǐ fú wù.
    A truly good leader should have no selfish motives and serve the collective wholeheartedly.
  • ，私心。
    Dà jiā pī píng tā, shì yīn wèi tā zuò shì de chū fā diǎn quán shì sī xīn.
    Everyone criticizes him because his starting point for doing things is entirely selfish motives.

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/selfish
心xīnheart/mind

“私” means private or selfish and “心” means heart or mind, giving a selfish motive.

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 →

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
Personality & Traits

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.