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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

不言而喻

/pu⁵¹ jɛn³⁵ ˀɤɻ³⁵ y⁵¹/
to go without saying; to be self-evident
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    Origin

    This phrase originates from Mencius. It is composed of the characters 不 (not), 言 (to say; to speak; to talk), 而 (and, used to connect two clauses or adjectives), and 喻 (to inform; to notify; to explain).

    The character 喻 is formed with the semantic component 口 (mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity) and the phonetic component 俞 (to hollow a tree to make a boat). Together, the expression describes truths or matters that are so shallow and obvious that they can be understood without needing to be stated.

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

    「不言而喻」出自孟子。這個成語由四個漢字組成：「不」表示否定；「言」指說話、談論；「而」作為連接兩個分句或形容詞的連詞；「喻」則有告知、通知或解釋的意思。

    在字形結構上，「喻」字包含兩個部分：語義成分為「口」，指嘴巴、嘴唇或口腔內部；音符成分則為「俞」。整體而言，這個詞組用來形容道理非常顯而易見，不需要透過言語解釋即可理解。

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

    Lineage

    • characterChinese不 “not; un-; in-; il-; im-; ir-”
    • characterChinese言 “to say; to speak; to talk”
    • characterChinese而 “and (used to connect two clauses or adjectives)”
    • characterChinese喻 “to inform; to notify; to explain”
      • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
      • soundChinese俞 “to hollow a tree to make a boat”
    Wiktionary etymology text

    From Mencius

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Meanings

    phrase
    1. to go without saying; to be self-evident

    國語辭典 definitions

    1. 事理淺顯，不必說就可明白。 例：他們日夜苦練球技，爭取冠軍的企圖心早已不言而喻。

    © 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
    • Wiktionary: 不言而喻