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奋起 (fèn qǐ) — to rise up with vigor; to spring into action

Definition

奋起 means to summon great energy and spring into action, often against a challenge or to catch up. It implies a forceful, deliberate rallying of spirit, stronger than plain 起来.

verb
to rise up with vigorto spring into action

Examples

  • 奋起，。
    Quán guó rén mín fèn qǐ fǎn kàng, bǎo wèi zì jǐ de jiā yuán.
    The people of the whole country rose up in resistance to defend their homeland.
  • ，。
    Tā men fèn qǐ zhí zhuī, zhōng yú gǎn shàng le jìn dù.
    They sprang into action and pressed ahead, finally catching up with the schedule.
  • ，。
    Tā nǔ lì le hǎo jiǔ, dàn jiù shì fèn bù qǐ nà ge jìn r.
    He tried hard for a long time, but just couldn't muster up that energy.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 奮; 奋 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 奮 pairs 奞, a bird, with 田, a field, to show a bird spreading its wings to fly; the simplified 奋 is a later abbreviation.

Open 奋 →

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
走走zǒu
Sound part声符shēngfú
巳
巳sì起qǐ
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

起 is made from 走 and 巳: 走 is the part connected with walking or running, and 巳 gives the sound.

Open 起 →
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