春心 (chūn xīn) — romantic or wistful feelings stirred by spring

Definition

A literary term for the romantic or wistful feelings stirred by spring — common in classical poetry to express longing for love, not used in everyday speech.

noun
romantic or wistful feelings stirred by spring

Examples

  • ，春心。
    Chūn fēng fú miàn, tā de chūn xīn dàng yàng.
    The spring breeze caresses her face, and her heart stirs with romantic feelings.
  • 春心。
    Gǔ shī cí zhōng cháng yǐ chūn xīn jì tuō duì ài qíng de sī niàn.
    In classical poetry, 'chun xin' is often used to express longing for love.
  • ，春心。
    Chūn tiān lái le, tā què wú gù shēng chū xǔ duō chūn xīn.
    Spring came, but he inexplicably felt many melancholy sentiments.

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.

春chūnspring
心xīnheart

春 means spring and 心 means heart, so it suggests feelings stirred by spring.

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
艸艸cǎograss
日日rìsun
Sound part声符shēngfú
屯
屯tún春chūn
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

春 combines 艸 (grass) and 日 (sun) with 屯, which supplies the sound and is described as a swollen sprout.

Open 春 →

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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