爱美 (ài měi) — to be beauty-conscious; to care about one's appearance; to love dressing up

Definition

爱美 means to love beauty — someone who cares about looking attractive and well-groomed. As a verb-object phrase it focuses on the personal habit of valuing one's appearance, not on an aesthetic judgment of things.

verb
to be beauty-consciousto care about one's appearanceto love dressing up

Examples

  • 爱美，。
    Tā fēi cháng ài měi, měi tiān dōu yào dǎ bàn hěn jiǔ.
    She is very beauty-conscious; she spends a long time dressing up every day.
  • ，。
    Tā ài le yí bèi zi měi, bā shí duō suì le hái chuān gāo gēn xié.
    She loved beauty all her life; even in her eighties she still wears high heels.
  • 爱美。
    Xiàn zài de nián qīng rén yuè lái yuè ài měi le.
    Young people nowadays are more and more beauty-conscious.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

爱àilove
美měibeauty

Love and beauty combine to describe caring about one's appearance.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 愛; 爱 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
心心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
旡
旡jì愛ài
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

For the traditional form 愛, an older shape paired 心 (heart) with 旡 as its sound part; later a foot-like 夊 was added below. The simplified 爱 is a later variant that replaces the lower part with 友.

Open 爱 →

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

美 shows 大, a person, wearing 羊, a headdress of feathers or ram's horn.

Open 美 →

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