冤 (yuān): wronged

Meanings

1 wronged
2 unjust
3 not worthwhile

Characters

冤

yuān

wronged; injustice

Examples

他觉得自己很冤。

Tā juéde zìjǐ hěn yuān.

He feels he has been wronged.

这钱花得真冤。

Zhè qián huā de zhēn yuān.

This money was really wasted.

Tips

usage

冤 can mean 'wronged/unjust' (被冤) or colloquially 'not worth it' (花冤枉钱). Context determines the meaning.

memory

The character 冤 has 冖 (cover) over 兔 (rabbit) — imagine a rabbit trapped under a cover, wrongly accused.

Components

radical

冖 mì

cover; lid

Top cover radical — a horizontal canopy with downward hooks at each end, picturing a cloth or lid laid over something. The indexing radical, files 冤 with other 'covered' concepts: 写 write (originally placing words under a roof), 军 army (vehicles under a covered camp). Marks the original scene: a rabbit trapped under a covering net — being unjustly caught.

semantic

兔 tù

rabbit

Bottom rabbit — a pictograph of a hare with long ears, short tail, and the trailing dot marking the cottontail. A compound ideograph 会意字: a rabbit trapped under a cover = caught unfairly. From this came the cluster of senses — 'wronged, falsely accused, grievance, bad luck' — all centered on the image of a creature snared without escape.