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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

猶豫不決

/joʊ̯³⁵ y⁵¹⁻⁵³ pu⁵¹ t͡ɕy̯ɛ³⁵/
to be hesitant or indecisive; to waver; to shilly-shally
  • 犹豫不决
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Origin

The phrase 猶豫不決 means to be hesitant or indecisive, to waver, or to shilly-shally. It is formed with the character 猶, which means a kind of monkey. This character contains the semantic component 犬 (dog) and the phonetic component 酋 (chief of a tribe; chieftain). The character 豫 is used in the phrase 猶豫.

The phrase also includes 不, meaning not, un-, in-, il-, im-, or ir-, and 決, meaning to dredge or to dig. The character 決 features the semantic component 水 (water) and the phonetic component 夬 (resolute).

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

「猶豫不決」由四個漢字組成。其中「猶」字是指一種猴子，其字形包含表示意義的「犬」與表示讀音的「酋」。「豫」字則用於「猶豫」一詞中。「不」字表示否定。

「決」字的意思是疏通或挖掘，其字形包含表示意義的「水」與表示讀音的「夬」。

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

Lineage

  • characterChinese猶 “a kind of monkey”
    • meaningChinese犬 “dog”
    • soundChinese酋 “chief of a tribe; chieftain”
  • characterChinese豫 “used in 猶豫／犹豫 (yóuyù)”
  • characterChinese不 “not; un-; in-; il-; im-; ir-”
  • characterChinese決 “to dredge; to dig”
    • meaningChinese水 “water (Classifier: 瓶 m; 樽 c; 滴 m c; 池 m c; 盆 m c; 杯 m c)”
    • soundChinese夬 “resolute”
Wiktionary etymology text

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

Meanings

phrase
  1. to be hesitant or indecisive; to waver; to shilly-shally

Sources

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0