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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

忘恩負義

/wɑŋ⁵¹ ˀən⁵⁵ fu⁵¹⁻⁵³ i⁵¹/
to be devoid of gratefulness; to forget someone’s kindness and turn one’s back on him; to bite the hand that feeds one
  • 忘恩负义
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Origin

The phrase 忘恩負義 is formed by four characters. The character 忘, meaning "to forget," consists of the semantic component 心 (heart) and the phonetic component 亡 (to run away; to flee; to escape). The character 恩, meaning "kindness; mercy; charity," combines the semantic component 心 (heart) with the phonetic component 因 (to follow). The component 因 is itself composed of 囗 (box, enclosure) and 大 (of great size; big; large; huge).

The character 負, meaning "to carry (on the back); to bear (a burden or responsibility)," is composed of 人 (man; person; people) and 貝 (shellfish; cowrie). Finally, the character 義, meaning "right conduct; righteousness; justice; morality," features the semantic component 羊 (caprid) and the phonetic component 我 (I; me; my).

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

「忘恩負義」由四個漢字組成。其中「忘」字包含表示意義的「心」字，以及表示聲音的「亡」字；「恩」字結合了表示意義的「心」字與表示聲音的「因」字，而「因」字由「囗」與「大」組成；「負」字則由「人」與「貝」組成；「義」字包含表示意義的「羊」字，以及表示聲音的「我」字。

在字義構成上，「忘」代表遺忘，「恩」代表恩惠、慈悲或恩慈，「負」代表在背上承載或擔負責任，而「義」則代表正當行為、道義、公正或道德。這些組成的字共同形塑了這個詞彙，用來描述一個人忘記恩情並背棄道義的行為。

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

Lineage

  • characterChinese忘 “to forget”
    • soundChinese亡 “to run away; to flee; to escape”
    • meaningChinese心 “heart (Classifier: 顆／颗 m; 個／个 c; 粒 mn)”
  • characterChinese恩 “kindness; mercy; charity”
    • soundChinese因 “to follow (e.g. a tradition)”
      • ideaChinese囗 “box, enclosure”
      • ideaChinese大 “of great size; big; large; huge”
  • characterChinese負 “to carry (on the back); to bear (a burden or responsibility)”
    • ideaChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
    • ideaChinese貝 “shellfish; cowrie”
  • characterChinese義 “right conduct; righteousness; justice; morality”
    • soundChinese我 “I; me; my”
    • meaningChinese羊 “caprid (e.g. sheep, goat, antelope, etc.) (Classifier: 隻／只 m c)”
Wiktionary etymology text

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

Meanings

phrase
  1. to be devoid of gratefulness; to forget someone’s kindness and turn one’s back on him; to bite the hand that feeds one

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 受人恩惠而不知報答，反而做出對不起恩人的事情。 例：如此忘恩負義的人，遲早會受到上天的懲罰。

© 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