姑息 (gū xī) — to be over-indulgent or lenient toward (someone's faults/mistakes), to tolerate without proper correction

Definition

A negative, written term: 'to indulge, to be lenient toward (a fault/crime)' — almost always in the negative (不能姑息) to condemn the leniency itself. Means tolerating wrong out of softness, not neutral forgiveness.

verb
to be over-indulgent or lenient toward (someone's faults/mistakes), to tolerate without proper correction

Examples

  • 姑息，。
    Duì hái zi de cuò wù bù néng gū xī, fǒu zé huì hài le tā.
    You cannot be lenient toward a child's mistakes, or it will harm him.
  • 姑息，。
    Lǐng dǎo rú guǒ gū xī xià shǔ de wéi guī xíng wéi, tuán duì jì lǜ jiù huì huàn sàn.
    If leaders tolerate their subordinates' violations, team discipline will become lax.
  • 姑息。
    Lì shǐ shàng hěn duō zhèng quán yīn wèi gū xī fǔ bài ér zuì zhōng bēng kuì.
    Many regimes in history ultimately collapsed because they were over-lenient toward corruption.

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.

姑gūtemporarily
息xīstop

姑 gives the sense of temporarily, and 息 means to stop: tolerating a fault temporarily instead of correcting it.

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
女女nǚwoman
Sound part声符shēngfú
古
古gǔ姑gū
Same sound today

The left part 女 marks it as a woman, and the right part 古 provides the sound. It is used for female relatives like an aunt or mother-in-law.

Open 姑 →

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

In 息, 自 is nose and 心 is heart, showing breath or life passing through one's nose.

Open 息 →

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