心浮 (xīn fú) — flighty and impatient; restless and unstable | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

心浮 means mentally restless and unable to settle down — 'flighty, impatient'. Use it for someone whose mind is scattered, not for simple nervousness.

verb

flighty and impatientrestless and unstable

Examples

心浮，。
Tā xìng gé xīn fú, zuò shì bú tā shi.
He is flighty and impatient, not steady in doing things.
心浮，。
Nián qīng rén róng yì xīn fú, xū yào duō mó liàn.
Young people are easily flighty and impatient; they need more practice.
心浮，。
Tā zuì jìn hěn xīn fú, jìng bú xià xīn dú shū.
He has been very impatient recently, unable to calm down to study.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

浮fúfloating/unstable

心 is the mind and 浮 describes floating, so 心浮 means restless or flighty.

Characters in this word

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.

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

水水shuǐriver

Sound part声符shēngfú

孚

孚fú浮fú

Same sound today

浮 pairs 水 (river) with 孚, which gives the sound; the river part points to its meaning of floating.

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