市侩 (shì kuài) — philistine; vulgar mercenary person (strongly pejorative)

Definition

A pejorative noun for a vulgar, money-obsessed person who haggles over everything and despises anything non-commercial. Strongly negative — used to criticize someone's mercenary, philistine attitude, not just to label a merchant.

noun
philistinevulgar mercenary person (strongly pejorative)
Measure word · 个
Easily confused

Examples

  • ，市侩。
    Tā mǎn kǒu shēng yì jīng, huó tuō tuō yí gè shì kuài.
    He talks nothing but business — a total philistine.
  • 市侩。
    Zhè bù xiǎo shuō kè huà le yí gè wéi lì shì tú de shì kuài xíng xiàng.
    This novel portrays a mercenary philistine character.
  • 市侩。
    Zhēn zhèng de wén rén kàn bù qǐ nà xiē shì kuài zuò fēng.
    True literati look down on that kind of vulgar mercenary attitude.

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.

市shìmarket
侩kuàibroker

市 refers to the market and 侩 to a broker, together describing a mercenary person.

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
兮兮xībustling
Sound part声符shēngfú
之
之zhī市shì
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The old form 市 pairs 兮, meaning bustling, with 之, the sound part.

Open 市 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 侩 →

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