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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

一事無成

/i⁵⁵⁻³⁵ ʂɻ̩⁵¹ u³⁵ ʈ͡ʂʰɤŋ³⁵/
to be unable to achieve anything; to be a total failure
  • 一事无成
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Etymology graph

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Origin

The phrase 一事無成 is composed of four characters: 一 (one), 事 (thing; matter), 無 (to not have; there is not; there does not exist), and 成 (to succeed; to accomplish; to achieve; to finish; to complete).

Within the character 事, the components 又 (again; once more) and 中 (middle; center) are present. The character 成 contains the semantic component 戊 (the fifth of the ten heavenly stems) and the phonetic component 丁 (the fourth of the ten heavenly stems).

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • characterChinese一 “one”
  • characterChinese事 “thing; matter (Classifier: 件 m c; 樁／桩 m; 回 m; 條／条 mn-t)”
    • ideaChinese又 “again; once more”
    • ideaChinese中 “middle; center”
  • characterChinese無 “to not have; there is not; there does not exist”
  • characterChinese成 “to succeed; to accomplish; to achieve; to finish; to complete”
    • meaningChinese戊 “the fifth of the ten heavenly stems”
    • soundChinese丁 “the fourth of the ten heavenly stems”
Wiktionary etymology text

No etymology text yet. The graph shows what is known from the sources.

Meanings

phrase
  1. to be unable to achieve anything; to be a total failure

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 在事業功名上沒有任何成就。為慨嘆之詞。 例：離鄉奮鬥多年，卻一事無成，怎麼有臉回去呢！

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

Sources

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0