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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

無法無天

/u³⁵ fä²¹⁴⁻²¹ u³⁵ tʰi̯ɛn⁵⁵/
no respect for law and order; unruly
  • 无法无天
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Origin

The phrase 無法無天 is formed by combining 無 (wú, "not have; there is not; there does not exist") with 法 (fǎ) and 天 (tiān). In this context, 法 is a shortening of 法紀 (fǎjì, "law"), while 天 is a shortening of 天理 (tiānlǐ, "heavenly justice"). The literal meaning is "no (respect for) heaven(ly) justice."

The character 法 includes the semantic components 水 (water) and 廌 (a kind of small deer-like ungulate, antelope), and the phonetic component 盍 (why; how). The character 天 contains the semantic component 大 (of great size; big; large; huge) and the phonetic component 丁 (the fourth of the ten heavenly stems).

According to the MOE Dictionary, the phrase describes someone who acts brazenly and rampantly without restraint, lacking both law and heavenly justice.

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

這個詞由「無」、「法」、「天」三個字組成。其中「無」的意思是不具有、沒有、不存在。從字面意義來看，這個詞表示沒有（對）法紀與天理的敬畏。

在字形構成上，「法」字包含意義成分「水」與「廌」（一種小型鹿形蹄獸），並以「盍」作為聲音成分。「天」字則包含意義成分「大」，並以「丁」作為聲音成分。

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

Lineage

  • characterChinese無 “to not have; there is not; there does not exist”
  • characterChinese法 “law; rule; regulation; statute”
    • meaningChinese水 “water (Classifier: 瓶 m; 樽 c; 滴 m c; 池 m c; 盆 m c; 杯 m c)”
    • meaningChinese廌 “a kind of small deer-like ungulate, antelope”
    • soundChinese盍 “why; how”
  • characterChinese天 “sky; heavens; heavenly; celestial”
    • meaningChinese大 “of great size; big; large; huge”
    • soundChinese丁 “the fourth of the ten heavenly stems”
Wiktionary etymology text

From

* 無／无 (wú, “not have”) + 法 (fǎ) (short for 法紀／法纪 (fǎjì, “law”)): ("no (respect for) law") +

* 無／无 (wú, “not have”) + 天 (tiān) (short for 天理 (tiānlǐ, “heavenly justice”).

Literally "no (respect for) heaven(ly) justice".

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

phrase
  1. no respect for law and order; unruly

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 沒有法紀天理。形容人明目張膽，橫行無忌。 例：歹徒竟然在大白天在路上行搶，真是無法無天。

© 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: 無法無天