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自作聪明 (zì zuò cōng ming) — to think oneself clever but end up looking foolish; to outsmart oneself

Definition

A negative judgment: someone thinks they're being clever but the 'cleverness' backfires and makes them look foolish. Often warns against overconfidence or second-guessing experts.

idiom
to think oneself clever but end up looking foolishto outsmart oneself

Examples

  • ，自作聪明。
    Tā zǒng shì yí yì gū xíng, zuì hòu zì zuò cōng ming fǎn ér chī le dà kuī.
    He always goes his own way, and in the end his trying to be clever backfired and he suffered a big loss.
  • 自作聪明，，。
    Bié zì zuò cōng ming le, zhè jiàn shì nǐ gēn běn bù dǒng, hái shì tīng zhuān jiā de ba.
    Don't try to be smart about this—you don't understand it at all; you'd better listen to the experts.
  • ，自作聪明，。
    Yí yù dào kùn nan jiù xiǎng zǒu jié jìng, wǎng wǎng zì zuò cōng ming, fǎn ér gèng má fan.
    Whenever you encounter a difficulty, you think of taking shortcuts—that often leads to outsmarting yourself and only makes things more troublesome.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

假借jiǎjièLater borrowed for its sound alone — the picture has nothing to do with today’s meaning.

自 originally drew a nose. It was borrowed purely for its sound to write 自, so the picture and the meaning are unrelated.

Open 自 →

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
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
乍
乍zhà作zuò
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left side 亻 comes from 人, meaning 'person', and the right side 乍 gives the sound.

Open 作 →

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 聰; 聪 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
心心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
囪
囪cōng聰cōng
Same sound today

The traditional form 聰 has 耳, the ear, beside a right side made of 囪, a window giving the sound, over 心, the heart; the simplified 聪 is a later abbreviation.

Open 聪 →

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

明 combines 日 (sun) and 月 (moon), showing the sun just rising while the moon has not yet set, or two bright objects in the sky, to express brightness.

Open 明 →
Appears in
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