歹人 (dǎi rén) — evil person, villain; thief, burglar

Definition

Literary/classical term for a villain or thief, mostly seen in old stories or formal writing. In modern speech say 坏人 for a bad person, 贼/小偷 for a thief.

noun
evil personvillainthiefburglar
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 歹人。
    Nà ge dǎi rén tōu le cūn lǐ de liáng shi.
    That villain stole the village's grain.
  • 歹人。
    Shū zhōng miáo xiě le yì qún dǎi rén zài yè lǐ xíng dòng.
    The book describes a group of villains acting at night.
  • 歹人。
    Tā jǐng gào dà jiā yào xiǎo xīn dǎi rén.
    He warned everyone to be careful of evil people.

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.

歹dǎibad/evil
人rénperson

歹 contributes the idea of badness or evil, and 人 contributes person, so together they mean an evil person.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 歹 →

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →

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