无礼 (wú lǐ) — rude, impolite; rudeness, impoliteness

Definition

rudeimpoliterudenessimpoliteness

Examples

无礼。
Tā duì lǎo shī shuō huà hěn wú lǐ.
He spoke very rudely to the teacher.
无礼。
Zhè zhǒng xíng wéi shì yì zhǒng wú lǐ.
This kind of behavior is a form of rudeness.
无礼。
wú lǐ De tài dù huì ràng rén tǎo yàn.
A rude attitude makes people dislike you.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

无wúwithout

礼lǐcourtesy

无 means without; 礼 means courtesy, so the whole means lacking courtesy.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

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 禮; 礼 is its simplified writing.

礻豊禮

Meaning part形符xíngfú

礻Written in full as示shìaltar

Sound part声符shēngfú

豊

豊lǐ禮lǐ

Same sound today

The traditional form 禮 pairs 礻 (altar) with 豊, a sound part, for performing rites at the altar; the simplified 礼 is a later shorthand.

Open 礼 →