有意识 (yǒu yì shí) — to have awareness; to be conscious

Definition

Means 'conscious / aware' — either having consciousness (after fainting) or doing something deliberately (opposite of 无意识 'unconscious/unintentional').

verb

to have awarenessto be conscious

Examples

有意识。
Tā yǒu yì shí dì kòng zhì zhe zì jǐ de qíng xù.
He consciously controls his emotions.
，。
Tā màn màn yǒu le yì shí, rán hòu zhēng kāi le yǎn jing.
He slowly regained consciousness and then opened his eyes.
有意识。
Wǒ men yào yǒu yì shí dì yòng xíng dòng bǎo hù huán jìng.
We must take conscious action to protect the environment.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

有yǒuhas

意识awareness

意yìthought识shíknowledge

联合Coordinate

有 means has and 意识 means awareness, so it means to have consciousness.

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

肉肉ròumeat

Sound part声符shēngfú

又

又yòu有yǒu

Same sound today

The form 有 combines 又, used for its sound, with a shape from 肉, 'meat'; the hand-holding-meat story is a folk explanation, not shown in the oldest shape.

Open 有 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 意 →

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 識; 识 is its simplified writing.

言戠識

Meaning part形符xíngfú

言言yánsay

Sound part声符shēngfú

戠

戠zhí識zhì

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