冒进 (mào jìn) — adventurism; rash advance or reckless action (esp. in policy or economic development)

Definition

A formal noun for 'rash, reckless action' — usually a critique of a policy, plan, or strategy that moves too fast without enough caution.

noun
adventurismrash advance or reckless action (esp. in policy or economic development)

Examples

  • 冒进，。
    Zhè ge jì huà tài mào jìn le, xū yào chóng xīn píng gū.
    This plan is too rash; it needs to be reevaluated.
  • 冒进。
    Lì shǐ shàng de mào jìn zhèng cè gěi wǒ men liú xià le shēn kè jiào xùn.
    The adventurist policies in history have left us with profound lessons.
  • 冒进。
    Gōng sī yīn wèi mào jìn kuò zhāng ér xiàn rù kùn jìng.
    The company fell into trouble because of reckless expansion.

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.

冒màorashly
进jìnadvance

冒 means rashly, and 进 means advance, giving the sense of a reckless forward move.

Characters in this word

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
目目mùeyes
Sound part声符shēngfú
冃
冃mào冒mào
Same sound today

冒 was built from 冃, a hat used for the sound, plus 目, eyes, as the meaning part.

Open 冒 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 進; 进 is its simplified writing.

  • 辵辵chuòwalk
  • 隹隹zhuīshort-tail bird

The traditional form 進 pairs 辵 (walk) with 隹 (short-tail bird): the picture showed moving forward because a bird can only walk forward, not backward. The simplified 进 is a later shorthand.

Open 进 →

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