戾 (lì) · violent / fierce, perverse / contrary

Meanings

1 violent / fierce
2 perverse / contrary
3 to violate / go against

Characters

戾

lì

violent / perverse

Examples

HSK 5

戾气太重的人很难与人相处。

Lìqì tài zhòng de rén hěn nán yǔ rén xiāngchǔ.

People with too much aggression find it hard to get along with others.

HSK 7-9

他性情暴戾,谁也不敢招惹。

Tā xìngqíng bàolì, shéi yě bù gǎn zhāorě.

He has a violent temper - no one dares cross him.

Tips

usage

Rarely stands alone in modern Chinese. Appears mostly in compounds: 暴戾 (brutal), 乖戾 (eccentric/perverse), 戾气 (hostile aura/aggression). The internet-era term 戾气 has become common shorthand for the toxic aggression on social media.

history

The character 戾 shows a dog 犬 under a door 户, picturing the dog squeezing through, body bent. From this 'bending/twisting' image came the senses of going against, violating, and being perverse.

Components

radical

户 hù

door; household

Top-left door radical, pictograph of a single-leaf door, half of the double-leaf 門. As the indexing radical it gives the framing image for 戾: a dog forcing its way under a barely-open door. The original sense was that violent, perverse pushing-through, which became the modern 'fierce, perverse, contrary' meanings.

semantic

犬 quǎn

dog

Lower 犬, pictograph of a dog with its tail curled up. Tucked beneath the door it gives the compound ideograph reading: a dog twisting itself under or through a door, the picture of forced, contrary motion. From this came 'violent, perverse,' and the classical verb sense 'to violate / go against'.