恼 (nǎo): to be annoyed

Meanings

1 to be annoyed
2 to get angry
3 to irritate

Characters

恼

nǎo

annoy / anger

Examples

他的话让我很恼。

Tā dehuà ràngwǒ hěn nǎo.

His words really annoyed me.

她恼得说不出话来。

Tā nǎo de shuō bu chū huà lái.

She was so annoyed she couldn't speak.

别为这点小事恼了。

Bié wèi zhè diǎn xiǎoshì nǎo le.

Don't get annoyed over such a small thing.

Tips

usage

恼 is usually seen in compound forms: 恼火 (vexed), 恼怒 (angry), 恼人 (annoying). Alone it is relatively literary.

Components

radical

忄 xīn

heart; mind

忄 is the left-side compressed heart radical. It marks 恼 as an emotion verb — annoyance, irritation, the prickly heat of being vexed. Family includes 怕 (fear), 怒 (anger), 悔 (regret), 烦 (bothered) — all share the sensation of mental disturbance flowing through the vertical heart on the left.

phonetic

凶 xiōng

fierce; ominous

The right side carries a small horizontal stroke (亠) above 凶 — a simplified replacement for an old brain-graph. Take it as 凶 with a covering mark, supplying sound (xiōng → nǎo via dialect routes) and a flavour of ominous violence fitting the bristling annoyance of 恼火, 烦恼.