jiù
noun #90,975

Meanings

  1. 1 guilt; remorse
  2. 2 long-standing illness

Examples

Tā duì nàge juédìng yìzhí gǎndào nèijiù.
He always felt guilty about that decision.
Kàndào tā de yǎnshén, wǒ xīnlǐ chōngmǎn kuìjiù.
Seeing the look in her eyes, my heart was filled with remorse.

Tips

usage
In modern Chinese means guilt, almost always in 内疚 (inner guilt) or 愧疚 (ashamed and guilty). The original chronic-illness sense is now rare and literary.

Components

radical
sickness
The sickness radical, a person reclining on a bed. Guilt is framed here as a sickness of the heart, a gnawing inner ailment, which is how the illness radical ended up on an emotion word.
phonetic
jiǔ
long (time)
Supplies the sound (jiǔ shifted to jiù) and a fitting hint: guilt that lasts a long time. Standalone keeps the related reading.

Stroke Order

jiù