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禁

jīn / jìn
verb #4,360

Meanings

  1. 1 to bear; to endure; to withstand
  2. 2 to contain (oneself); to refrain from

Examples

HSK 2
她禁不住笑了出来。
Tā jīnbuzhù xiào le chūlái.
She couldn't help bursting out laughing.
HSK 5
他身体弱得弱不禁风。
Tā shēntǐ ruò de ruòbù-jīnfēng.
His body is so frail he can't take even a breeze.
HSK 6
看到这个场面，我不禁流下了眼泪。
Kàndào zhège chǎngmiàn, wǒ bùjīn liú xià le yǎnlèi.
Seeing this scene, I couldn't help shedding tears.

Tips

usage
jīn is the 'endure / contain' reading - about what the subject can bear, physically or emotionally. It almost always appears in fixed compounds: 不禁 (cannot help [doing something]), 禁不住 (can't hold back; can't bear), 禁不起 (unable to withstand - pressure, scrutiny), 情不自禁 (overcome by emotion), 忍俊不禁 (can't help laughing), 弱不禁风 (too frail to stand a breeze).
mistakes
Tone reversal: jīn (1st tone, this entry) is not jìn (4th tone, see the jìn entry). The pattern is consistent - anything about prohibiting / banning / locking up is jìn; anything about being able (or unable) to endure / hold back is jīn. The two readings carry opposite forces: jìn shuts things down from the outside, jīn is what you contain from within.

Components

radical
示 shì
altar; show; sign
Bottom altar radical (Kangxi #113) - a pictograph of a stone altar where offerings were displayed. The indexing radical of 禁. Marks 禁 as a sacred-and-prohibited concept: things forbidden by the gods, by ritual, or by law. Same radical heads 神 (god), 祖 (ancestor), 祝 (pray), 福 (blessing) - the entire ritual / spiritual family. 禁 = altar in the forest = sacred ground, hence forbidden.
semantic
林 lín
forest
Top 林 - two trees, the picture of a forest (itself a semantic compound 木+木). Carries the literal core: 禁 originally referred to the forbidden grove around a sacred altar, a forest where access was restricted. A faint phonetic link is there too (lín to jìn, regular palatalisation), so 林 doubles as a soft sound-bearer.

Stroke Order

禁 jīn