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自拔 (zì bá) — to free oneself; to extricate oneself (usually in the negative 不能自拔)

Definition

Almost always used in the negative (不能自拔 / 难以自拔) to mean 'unable to pull oneself out' of an addiction, emotion, or obsession. The plain positive form is rare.

verb
to free oneselfto extricate oneself (usually in the negative 不能自拔)

Examples

  • ，自拔。
    Tā xiàn rù le shēn shēn de wǎng luò yóu xì chéng yǐn, wú fǎ zì bá.
    He fell into a deep online game addiction and couldn't extricate himself.
  • ，。
    Tā wèi nà duàn gǎn qíng tòng kǔ bù kān, jī hū bù néng zì bá.
    She was so miserable over that relationship that she could hardly free herself from it.
  • 自拔。
    Zhè zhǒng yōu yù de qíng xù ràng tā nán yǐ zì bá.
    This melancholic mood made it hard for him to pull himself out of it.

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.

自zìself
拔bápull out

拔 means 'pull out', and 自 points the action to oneself, giving the sense of freeing oneself.

Characters in this word

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

自 originally drew a nose. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write 自, so the picture and the meaning are unrelated.

Open 自 →

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
扌Written in full as手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
犮
犮bá拔bá
Same sound today

In 拔, the left side 扌 is a hand and the right side 犮 gives the sound; the shape pictures a hand pulling.

Open 拔 →
Appears in
Abstract Concepts

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