辱 (rǔ): to insult

Meanings

1 to insult
2 to humiliate
3 disgrace
4 dishonor

Characters

辱

rǔ

disgrace; to insult

Examples

他觉得这是一种奇耻大辱。

Tā juéde zhè shì yī zhǒng qíchǐdàrǔ.

He felt this was a great humiliation.

不要侮辱别人的人格。

Bùyào wǔrǔ biéren de réngé.

Don't insult other people's dignity.

Tips

usage

辱 is a bound morpheme — it almost never appears alone in modern Chinese. Common compounds: 侮辱 (wǔrǔ, to insult), 耻辱 (chǐrǔ, shame/disgrace), 凌辱 (língrǔ, to humiliate), 受辱 (shòurǔ, to be humiliated).

history

The idiom 忍辱负重 (rěnrǔfùzhòng, to endure humiliation while bearing a heavy burden) comes from the Three Kingdoms period, describing figures who swallowed their pride for a greater cause.

Components

radical

辰 chén

5th earthly branch; clam shell

Top-left 辰 — pictograph of a clam with its hinged shell open, also used as the 5th earthly branch and a name for the dragon hour. The indexing radical here. Original interpretation: 辰 named the season for clearing weeds, so 辱 first meant 'cultivate the soil at the proper time'; 'to fail or shame' came from the failure-of-duty reading later.

semantic

寸 cùn

inch; measure; hand-rule

Lower-right 寸 — a hand with a stroke marking the pulse-point one inch from the wrist, used pictorially for 'a hand carefully measuring or doing something with rule.' Under the clam-shell hoe imagery it gave 'work the soil by the inch / by proper measure'; the modern 'humiliate / shame' meaning grew from failing to perform that duty.