面善 (miàn shàn) — looking familiar, having a face one seems to recognize; kind-looking, benign in appearance

Definition

Describes a person who looks familiar or has a kind, approachable face. 善 here means 'kind/gentle' in appearance, not moral goodness.

adjective
looking familiar, having a face one seems to recognizekind-lookingbenign in appearance

Examples

  • 面善，。
    Nà ge rén kàn qǐ lái hěn miàn shàn, wǒ hǎo xiàng zài nǎ lǐ jiàn guò.
    That person looks familiar; I feel like I've seen him somewhere.
  • 面善，。
    Zhè wèi lǎo rén miàn róng miàn shàn, hái zi men dōu hěn xǐ huan tā.
    This old man has a kind face, and the children all like him very much.
  • ，面善。
    Tā suī rán cháng dé hěn xiōng, dàn shuō huà de yǔ qì què hěn miàn shàn.
    Although he looks fierce, his tone of voice is quite gentle.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

面miànface
善shàngood

'面' is face and '善' means good or kind, so it looks kind or familiar.

Characters in this word

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

面 originally drew a man’s face, with one eye exaggerated; the horizontal stroke was added later.

Open 面 →

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

An earlier form of 善 joined 羊, a sheep linked with goodness or beauty, and 誩, described as a wrangle; the reference says this meaning link is hard to understand.

Open 善 →

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