愚 (yú): stupid

Meanings

1 stupid
2 foolish
3 ignorant
4 humble (self-deprecating, literary)

Characters

愚

yú

foolish; stupid

Examples

他做了一个愚蠢的决定。

Tā zuò le yīgè yúchǔn de juédìng.

He made a foolish decision.

愚公移山的故事激励了无数人。

Yúgōngyíshān de gùshi jīlì le wúshù rén.

The story of the Foolish Old Man Moving Mountains has inspired countless people.

Tips

culture

愚公移山 (Yúgōng yí shān) — 'The Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains' — is a famous Chinese fable from Liezi about persistence overcoming seemingly impossible obstacles. Mao Zedong famously referenced it.

Components

radical

心 xīn

heart; mind

Bottom 心 is the heart radical, the indexing component. In classical Chinese psychology 心 covered both heart and mind, so all mental-state characters carry it — 想 to think, 念 to miss, 思 to ponder, 怕 to fear. Here it marks 愚 as a quality of the mind: foolishness, stupidity, naïveté.

phonetic

禺 yú

monkey; region

Top 禺 supplies the sound — yú level-tone, no drift. Originally a drawing of a long-tailed monkey, 禺 also carried a faint flavour of 'simian, primitive,' which fits 愚 nicely: a foolish mind, untrained as an animal. Same phonetic and image family: 遇 to meet, 寓 to lodge, 偶 idol, 隅 corner.