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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

無足輕重

/u³⁵ t͡su³⁵ t͡ɕʰiŋ⁵⁵ ʈ͡ʂʊŋ⁵¹/
of little importance or consequence; insignificant; of little account
  • 无足轻重
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The phrase describes something so weightless or insignificant that it fails to tip the balance of importance.
The phrase describes something so weightless or insignificant that it fails to tip the balance of importance.

Origin

The phrase 無足輕重 is formed by combining four characters: 無, 足, 輕, and 重. The character 無 means to not have, there is not, or there does not exist, while 足 means foot.

In the character 輕, meaning light in weight, the component 車 (land vehicle) serves as the semantic element, and 巠 (streams running underground) serves as the phonetic element. The character 重, meaning heavy, contains the semantic component 人 (man; person; people) and the phonetic component 東 (east).

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

「無足輕重」由四個漢字組成。其中「無」表示「沒有」、「不存在」；「足」指「腳」；「輕」指「重量輕」；「重」則指「重量重」。

在字形結構上，「輕」字包含表示意義的「車」部（指陸地上的車輛）以及表示讀音的「巠」；「重」字則由表示意義的「人」與表示讀音的「東」組成。

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足 “foot”
  • characterChinese輕 “light (of low weight)”
    • meaningChinese車 “land vehicle; (specifically) car (Classifier: 輛／辆 m; 部 m c; 臺／台 m mn; 架 c; 頂／顶 mn; 張／张 mn-t; 乘 m)”
    • soundChinese巠 “streams running underground”
  • characterChinese重 “heavy”
    • meaningChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
    • soundChinese東 “east”
Wiktionary etymology text

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

Meanings

phrase
  1. of little importance or consequence; insignificant; of little account

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 不重要、無關緊要。 例：這是個無足輕重的小問題，你不必過分憂慮。

© 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