不妙 (bú miào) — not good; unfavorable; ominous | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A vague, ominous 'not looking good' — the speaker senses trouble is likely but it's not yet certain or concrete. Lighter and less specific than 不利 (a clear disadvantage); softer and more spoken than 凶 (sharply inauspicious or fierce).

adjective

not goodunfavorableominous

Examples

不妙。
Qíng kuàng yuè lái yuè bú miào le.
The situation is getting worse and worse.
，不妙。
Tā tīng dào zhè ge xiāo xi, jué de bú miào.
He heard this news and felt it was bad.
，不妙。
Rú guǒ xiàn zài bù cǎi qǔ cuò shī, hòu guǒ bú miào.
If we don't take measures now, the consequences will be bad.

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.

不 means not and 妙 means good, so together they describe something as not good.

Characters in this word

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

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

女少妙

Meaning part形符xíngfú

女女nǚwoman

Sound part声符shēngfú

少

少shǎo妙miào

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

妙 combines 女, a woman, with 少, which gives the sound.

Appears in

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