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恶心 (ě xin) — (adjective) nauseous, sickening, disgusting; (verb) to disgust, to gross out, to embarrass (deliberately)

Definition

恶心 (ěxin) is the everyday, physical word for disgust — both the feeling of nausea and something that grosses you out. 反感 is a more formal, psychological 'aversion/dislike'; 过不去 focuses on deliberately embarrassing someone.

adjective
nauseoussickeningdisgusting
verb
to disgustto gross outto embarrass (deliberately)

Examples

  • 恶心。
    Wǒ zuò chuán de shí hou jué de fēi cháng ě xin.
    I felt very nauseous when I was on the boat.
  • 恶心。
    Zhè zhǒng xíng wéi zhēn ràng rén ě xin.
    This kind of behavior is truly disgusting.
  • 恶心。
    Nǐ jiù bié zài zhè lǐ ě xin rén le.
    Just stop grossing people out here.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

恶èbadness/disgust
心xīnheart

恶 expresses badness or disgust, and 心 is the heart; something disgusting to the heart gives nausea or a gross-out sense.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 惡; 恶 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
心心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
亞
亞yā惡è
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 惡 pairs 心 (heart) as the meaning part with 亞 (yā) as the sound part; the simplified 恶 is a later shorthand.

Open 恶 →

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 →
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