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好奇心 (hào qí xīn) — curiosity

Definition

noun
curiosity

Examples

  • 好奇心。
    Hái zi duì shì jiè chōng mǎn le hào qí xīn.
    Children are full of curiosity about the world.
  • 好奇心，。
    Chū yú hào qí xīn, tā dǎ kāi le nà ge hé zi.
    Out of curiosity, he opened that box.
  • 好奇心。
    Tā de hào qí xīn ràng tā xué dào le hěn duō xīn zhī shi.
    Her curiosity helped her learn a lot of new knowledge.

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.

好奇curious
好hǎolike奇qístrange
动宾Verb + object
心xīnheart

好 means like and 奇 means strange, so 好奇心 is a heart that likes strange things.

Characters in this word

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

好 joins 女 (woman) and 子 (child), understood as a woman with a child, linked to goodness or affection.

Open 好 →

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
大大dàbig; great
Sound part声符shēngfú
可
可kě奇
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

奇 pairs 大 (big; great) with 可, a sound part.

Open 奇 →

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

The shape of 心 comes from a drawing of a heart, now highly stylized.

Open 心 →
Appears in
Thinking & Cognition

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