下流 (xià liú) — low-down, mean, obscene, dirty (in behavior or speech)

Definition

Describes lewd, obscene language or behavior. Stronger than 低俗 — 下流 attacks the person's character as dirty, not just the content.

adjective
low-downmeanobscenedirty (in behavior or speech)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 。
    Tā shuō de nà zhǒng xià liú huà ràng rén hěn bù shū fu.
    His kind of obscene talk makes people very uncomfortable.
  • 下流。
    Zhè bù diàn yǐng yīn wèi tài xià liú bèi hěn duō rén pī píng.
    This movie was criticized by many people for being too obscene.
  • 下流，。
    Tā zhè ge rén hěn xià liú, zǒng shì kāi yì xiē bù hé shì de wán xiào.
    He is a very low-down person, always making inappropriate jokes.

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.

下xiàbelow
流liúflow

下 gives below, 流 gives flow, so the lower current came to mean base or vulgar.

Characters in this word

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 →

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
水水shuǐwater
Sound part声符shēngfú
㐬
㐬㐬流liú
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

流 has 水, water, and 㐬, which gives the sound. The water part matches meanings such as flow.

Open 流 →
Appears in
Personality & TraitsGood & Bad

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