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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

毛骨悚然

/mɑʊ̯³⁵ ku²¹⁴⁻³⁵ sʊŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹ ɻän³⁵/
absolutely terrified
  • 毛骨聳然
  • 毛骨耸然
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The phrase describes the sensation of hair standing on end due to extreme terror.
The phrase describes the sensation of hair standing on end due to extreme terror.

Origin

The phrase 毛骨悚然 is composed of four characters. The character 毛 refers to hair, fur, or feathers. The character 骨 means bone; it is formed with the semantic component 肉 (meat or flesh) and the phonetic component 冎 (bone).

The character 悚 means to fear or to be terrified. The final character 然 is the original form of 燃 (to burn). It is formed with the semantic component 火 (fire or flame) and the phonetic component 肰 (dog meat). The component 肰 is itself composed of the semantic components 肉 (meat or flesh) and 犬 (dog).

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

Lineage

  • characterChinese毛 “hair (of humans or animals); fur; feather (Classifier: 根 m; 條／条 c; 支 mn)”
  • characterChinese骨 “bone”
    • soundChinese冎 “bone”
    • meaningChinese肉 “meat; flesh”
  • characterChinese悚 “to fear; to be terrified”
  • characterChinese然 “original form of 燃 (rán, “to burn”)”
    • soundChinese肰 “dog meat”
      • meaningChinese犬 “dog”
    • meaningChinese火 “fire; flame (Classifier: 把 m; 團／团 m)”
Wiktionary etymology text

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

Meanings

phrase
  1. absolutely terrified

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 形容極端驚懼害怕。 例：這部電影令人看了不禁毛骨悚然，不寒而慄。

© 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