歹 (dǎi): bad; evil; vicious

Meanings

1 bad; evil; vicious
2 Kangxi radical #78 — 'shattered bone'

Characters

歹

dǎi

bad; shattered bone

Examples

他做了歹事，逃不掉的。

Tā zuò le dǎi shì, táo bú diào de.

He did something bad — he won't get away with it.

不知好歹。

Bùzhī hǎodǎi.

Can't tell good from bad. (a set phrase about ingratitude)

Tips

history

歹 is a pictograph of a cracked or splintered bone. Borrowed from this gruesome image, it became the radical for death and decay, and the colloquial word for 'bad'. Set phrases like 好歹 (good or bad / no matter what) and 歹徒 (criminal) keep it alive in modern speech.

usage

Standalone 歹 is mostly literary or fixed-phrase. Use 坏 for everyday 'bad'. But 歹 stays productive as a radical — see 死 (die), 残 (incomplete), 殊 (special, originally 'cut down'), 殃 (calamity).

Components

pictograph

歹 dǎi

shattered bone; bad; evil

Pictograph of a fragment of broken bone — diagonal top stroke the snapped end, lower strokes the splintered shaft. Kangxi radical #78 (the 'shattered bone' radical). From dry-bones imagery came 'evil, vicious, bad' (歹徒 villain, 不知好歹 not knowing good from bad). Heads 死, 残, 殃 — characters about death and ruin. Self-radical, atomic.

Radical

Shattered Bone Kangxi #78

Pictograph of a fractured or splintered bone — the visual root for ideas of death, decay, and damage. As a radical it groups characters about dying, harm, or remnants: 死 (die), 残 (incomplete), 殃 (calamity), 殉 (die for), 殡 (funeral). Steady contribution to the script.