杳无音信 (yǎo wú yīn xìn) — to have no news whatsoever; to be completely without information (about someone)

Definition

Literary idiom meaning 'no news at all, completely out of touch' — stronger and more formal than the everyday 没有任何消息. Used for people or things whose whereabouts or status is unknown.

idiom
to have no news whatsoeverto be completely without information (about someone)

Examples

  • 杳无音信，。
    Tā chū guó hòu biàn yǎo wú yīn xìn, jiā rén fēi cháng dān xīn.
    After he went abroad, there was no news from him at all, and his family was very worried.
  • ，杳无音信。
    Zhè fēng xìn jì chū bàn nián le, zhì jīn yǎo wú yīn xìn.
    This letter was sent half a year ago, and there has been no news of it so far.
  • ，杳无音信，。
    Tā men shī qù lián xì duō nián, yǎo wú yīn xìn, fǎng fú rén jiān zhēng fā.
    They lost contact for years with no news at all, as if they had vanished from the face of the earth.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

杳无far absent
杳yǎofar away无wúnot have
偏正Modifier + head
音信news
音yīnsound/message信xìnletter/news
联合Side by side

杳无 means far out of sight and absent, while 音信 is the news that is missing.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

In 杳, 日 (sun) sits under 木 (tree), showing the sun hidden by a tree, hence darkness.

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 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

音 adds a short stroke that seals the mouth-like part, showing a covered or muffled sound rather than speech.

Open 音 →

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
言言yánwords
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén信xìn
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

信 pairs 人 as the sound part with 言 (words) as the meaning part.

Open 信 →

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