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非同小可 (fēi tóng xiǎo kě) — no small matter; extremely serious or important

Definition

A four-character idiom meaning something is far from trivial — a matter of real gravity. Stricter than 严重: it stresses that consequences are significant, not just that the situation is bad.

idiom
no small matterextremely serious or important

Examples

  • 非同小可，。
    Zhè jiàn shì fēi tóng xiǎo kě, wǒ men bì xū rèn zhēn duì dài.
    This matter is no small thing — we must take it seriously.
  • 非同小可，。
    Tā fàn le yí gè fēi tóng xiǎo kě de cuò wù, dǎo zhì zhěng gè xiàng mù shī bài.
    He made a very serious mistake that caused the entire project to fail.
  • 非同小可，。
    Zhè cì dì zhèn zào chéng de sǔn shī fēi tóng xiǎo kě, zhèng fǔ yǐ jīng qǐ dòng jǐn jí jiù yuán.
    The losses caused by this earthquake are no small matter — the government has launched emergency relief.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 非 is drawn from two wings facing opposite directions. It later came to be used for going against or not being.

Open 非 →

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

同 originally drew a pipe. It is the old form of 筒.

Open 同 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 八八bāto divide; to separate
  • 丨丨gǔnsmall object

The shape of 小 comes from three small dots, later elongated into its strokes; the apparent parts 八 and 丨 are a later way of seeing it.

Open 小 →

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
口口kǒu
Sound part声符shēngfú
丂
丂kǎo可kě
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

可 pairs 口 (mouth) with 丂 as a sound part; it is tied to air from the mouth, perhaps singing.

Open 可 →
Appears in
Idioms & Set PhrasesGood & Bad

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