不畏 (bù wèi) — to not fear, to be undaunted by

Definition

A formal, written ‘not fear, be undaunted by’ — about facing hardship, danger, or power with resolve.

verb

to not fearto be undaunted by

不畏，。
Tā bù wèi jiān nán, zuì zhōng qǔ dé le chéng gōng.
He was undaunted by difficulties and ultimately achieved success.
不畏。
Zhēn zhèng de yǒng shì bù wèi tiǎo zhàn.
A true warrior does not fear challenges.
不畏，。
Tā bù wèi qiáng quán, jiān chí shuō chū zhēn xiàng.
She was not afraid of the powerful and insisted on telling the truth.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

鬼

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

An early form of 畏 drew a ghost 鬼 holding a stick. Later, 卜 was used as the meaning part and 鬼 as the sound part.

Appears in