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人间地狱 (rén jiān dì yù) — hell on earth

Definition

A four-character set phrase meaning 'hell on earth' — a place or situation of extreme suffering, stronger than just saying something is bad. Pairs naturally with the 把 construction to describe a transformation into suffering (see 把).

noun
hell on earth

Examples

  • 人间地狱。
    Zhàn zhēng bǎ zhè ge chéng shì biàn chéng le rén jiān dì yù.
    War turned this city into a hell on earth.
  • ，人间地狱。
    Zài nà ge nián dài, rén men guò zhe rén jiān dì yù yí yàng de shēng huó.
    In those days, people lived a life like hell on earth.
  • 人间地狱。
    Zāi qū de qíng kuàng jiǎn zhí shì rén jiān dì yù.
    The situation in the disaster area was simply a hell on earth.

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.

人间human world
人rénhuman间jiānworld
偏正Modifier + head
地狱earth prison
地dìearth狱yùprison
偏正Modifier + head

人间 names the human world and 地狱 names a prison-like place of suffering, so the whole says this world is hell.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 间 →

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
土土tǔearth
Sound part声符shēngfú
也
也yě地dì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

地 is built from 土 (earth) and 也, which gives its sound.

Open 地 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 獄; 狱 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 獄 pairs 㹜 (two dog forms) with 言 (words), showing dogs barking at each other in a jail with guard dogs. The simplified 狱 is a later shorthand.

Open 狱 →
Appears in
Abstract ConceptsReligion & Belief

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