衰 (shuāi) · to decline, to wane, weak

Meanings

1 to decline
2 to wane
3 weak
4 unlucky

Characters

衰

shuāi

decline; wane

Examples

HSK 5

他最近真衰，什么事都不顺。

Tā zuìjìn zhēn shuāi, shénme shì dōu bú shùn.

He's been really unlucky lately, nothing goes well.

HSK 5

国力逐渐衰落。

Guólì zhújiàn shuāiluò.

The national strength gradually declined.

Tips

register

In formal Chinese, 衰 means to decline or weaken. In colloquial speech (especially Taiwanese Mandarin), it means unlucky or having bad luck.

Components

radical

衣 yī

clothing; garment

The 衣 'clothing' radical wraps the outside of 衰 - top strokes form the collar, bottom strokes form the hem and dangling sleeves of a garment. It is the indexing radical and gives 衰 its concrete origin: a mourning robe of coarse fibre, woven from straw, with frayed strands inside. Same garment-wrap appears in 表 outer, 衷 inner, 哀 grief.

semantic

口 kǒu

mouth; opening (here a knot or weave-cell)

Inside-upper is a small square - historically not a mouth but a knot or woven cell in the coarse mourning-robe pattern. It sits trapped within the garment wrap. Together the layered image is a robe whose weave is loose enough to fall apart - the visible decay that gives 衰 its meaning of decline and weakening.

ideograph

一 yī

horizontal stroke; line

The horizontal line cutting through the middle represents one of the dangling fringes of straw inside the mourning robe - a strand crossing the weave-cell. It is positional rather than literally 'the number one'. From this image of a frayed, decaying garment grew every modern sense: declining, weakening, and the colloquial Taiwanese 'unlucky' usage.