赧 (nǎn) · to blush with shame; to flush red from embarrassment

Meanings

1 to blush with shame; to flush red from embarrassment
2 ashamed; bashful

Characters

赧

nǎn

to blush with shame

Examples

HSK 7-9

听到夸奖，他赧然良久说不出话。

Tīngdào kuājiǎng, tā nǎnrán liángjiǔ shuōbuchūhuà.

Hearing the praise, he flushed red and was unable to speak for a long while.

HSK 7-9

如此厚誉，实不敢当，令人赧颜。

Rúcǐ hòu yù, shí bùgǎn dāng, lìng rén nǎnyán.

I dare not accept such generous compliments - they leave me red-faced with shame.

Tips

register

nǎn is literary - you will meet it mainly in formal writing, classical-style essays, and polite self-deprecation. Modern spoken Chinese uses 脸红 (to blush) or 不好意思 (embarrassed) instead. Common compounds: 赧然 (blushing - adverbial), 赧颜 (literally 'red face', a polite phrase for shame), 羞赧 (bashful, shy).

memory

Left 赤 (red) + right 反 (reverse, also supplying a faint sound clue) = the face flushing red as a reflex 'turn-back' of inner feeling. The red radical is doing the heavy semantic lifting - anything blush-related sits in this family.

Components

radical

赤 chì

red; naked; bare

Left 赤 - the red radical (Kangxi #155), originally a person beside a fire. Anchors the meaning: blushing is the face turning red from shame. The radical family is small but coherent - 赫 (red, conspicuous), 赭 (ochre red), 赧 (blush).

phonetic

反 fǎn

reverse; turn over

Right side - historically a 反 (reverse / overturn) shape supplying the sound. The fǎn → nǎn shift is a regular initial change. A closely related right-side element appears in the traditional 報 (report), where it supplies a parallel sound.