矜 (jīn): to boast; to plume oneself on

Meanings

1 to boast; to plume oneself on
2 to be reserved; to maintain dignity
3 to sympathize with; to pity (literary)

Characters

矜

jīn

to boast; to be reserved

Examples

她在陌生人面前总是很矜持。

Tā zài mòshēngrén miànqián zǒngshì hěn jīnchí.

She holds her dignity in front of strangers.

他虽是冠军，却从不自矜其功。

Tā suī shì guànjūn, què cóngbù zìjīn qí gōng.

Although a champion, he never plumes himself on his achievements.

这首诗矜悯苍生之苦。

Zhè shǒu shī jīn mǐn cāngshēng zhī kǔ.

The poem expresses sympathy for the suffering of the common people.

Tips

usage

Active compounds: 矜持 (reserved / dignified — said positively of a poised woman or a person holding themselves with restraint), 自矜 (to plume oneself), 骄矜 (haughty), and the formal 矜悯 (sympathize with / take pity on). 矜持 is the only one alive in colloquial speech.

mistakes

矜 covers two opposite emotional colors — proud display (自矜 = bragging) AND sober self-restraint (矜持 = composed). Read compounds, not the bare character: the same root yields very different judgments.

register

Literary in solo use; mainstream only inside fixed compounds like 矜持. The 矜悯 'take pity' sense is essentially classical now.

Components

radical

矛 máo

spear; lance

Left 矛 (spear / lance) is the indexing radical (Kangxi #110). One traditional reading takes 矜 as originally meaning the wooden shaft of a spear — by extension 'to brandish, to display' — leading to the sense of proud self-display.

phonetic

今 jīn

now; present

Right 今 supplies the reading (jīn, no tone drift). Shares this phonetic with 今, 金, 禁, and 琴.