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肝火 (gān huǒ) — (TCM) liver fire — a pattern of irritability and anger attributed to liver imbalance; (figurative) a hot temper, irascibility

Definition

A TCM term for irritability blamed on liver imbalance — in everyday talk it just means a hot temper. The example pattern is 肝火旺 ('liver fire flares'), meaning easily angered.

noun
(TCM) liver fire — a pattern of irritability and anger attributed to liver imbalance(figurative) a hot temperirascibility

Examples

  • 肝火，。
    Tā zuì jìn gān huǒ hěn dà, dòng bu dòng jiù fā huǒ.
    He's been very irritable lately, losing his temper at the slightest thing.
  • 肝火，。
    Nǐ gān huǒ zhè me wàng, hē diǎn jú huā chá jiàng jiàng huǒ ba.
    Your liver fire is so strong — drink some chrysanthemum tea to cool it down.
  • 肝火。
    Zhōng yī shuō gān huǒ tài shèng huì shāng shēn tǐ de.
    Chinese medicine says that too much liver fire can harm your body.

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.

肝gānliver
火huǒfire

肝 means liver and 火 means fire; together they denote liver fire, hence a hot temper.

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
⺼Written in full as肉ròuflesh; body part
Sound part声符shēngfú
干
干gān肝gān
Same sound today

The left part ⺼ shows flesh or a body part, while the right part 干 gives the sound. Together they form 肝.

Open 肝 →

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

火 is a simple drawing of a fire, with flames shown rising upward.

Open 火 →
Appears in
Illness & SymptomsTraditional Medicine & Philosophy

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