心焦 (xīn jiāo) — anxious; worried | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Literary word for 'anxious, worried,' used more in writing than in everyday speech — stronger and more formal than the plain 着急. It describes the inner feeling of fretting while waiting or fearing a bad outcome.

adjective

anxiousworried

Examples

，心焦。
Děng le yí gè xiǎo shí hái méi xiāo xi, tā shí fēn xīn jiāo.
After waiting an hour with no news, he was extremely anxious.
，心焦？
Hái zi shēng bìng le, zuò fù mǔ de zěn néng bù xīn jiāo?
When a child is sick, how can parents not be worried?
，心焦。
Kǎo shì jié guǒ chí chí bù chū, dà jiā dōu hěn xīn jiāo.
The exam results are delayed, and everyone is anxious.

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.

焦jiāoscorched

心 is the heart and 焦 suggests scorching, so the heart feels scorched by worry.

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

隹隹zhuībird

Sound part声符shēngfú

小

小xiǎo焦jiāo

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The 焦 glyph first paired 隹 (bird) with 小 as a sound part. The 小 part later changed into a fire shape, and the character was then used for scorching.

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