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吝啬鬼 (lìn sè guǐ) — miser; skinflint; stingy person

Definition

A negative label for someone extremely stingy — 'miser, skinflint'. Use it to criticize a person, not as a neutral description of behavior.

noun
miserskinflintstingy person
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 吝啬鬼，。
    Tā zhēn shì gè lìn sè guǐ, lián yì fēn qián dōu bù kěn huā.
    He is such a miser, unwilling to spend even a single cent.
  • 吝啬鬼，。
    Dà jiā dōu shuō tā shì lìn sè guǐ, yīn wèi tā cóng bù qǐng kè.
    Everyone calls him a skinflint because he never treats anyone.
  • ，吝啬鬼。
    Nǐ kě bié xué tā, biàn chéng gè lìn sè guǐ.
    Don't follow his example and become a miser.

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.

吝啬stingy
吝lìnstingy啬sèstingy
联合Coordinate
鬼guǐghost; bad person

The stingy 吝 and 啬 go with 鬼, a ghost or bad person, to mean a miser.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 嗇; 啬 is its simplified writing.

  • 來來lái
  • 㐭㐭㐭

The traditional form 嗇 combines 來 (wheat) with 㐭 (granary), while the simplified 啬 is a later shorthand and its parts are not the historical components.

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

鬼 originally drew a kneeling figure with an ugly face, perhaps a mask; the small lower right dot is a later added tail.

Open 鬼 →
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