p8nda
p8nda BETA
Home Dictionary Translate Flashcards

私

sī
adjective #3,713

Meanings

  1. 1 personal
  2. 2 private
  3. 3 selfish

Examples

HSK 4
这是我的私人生活，请你不要管。
Zhè shì wǒ de sīrén shēnghuó, qǐng nǐ búyào guǎn.
This is my private life, please stay out of it.
HSK 4
他太自私了，从来不考虑别人。
Tā tài zìsī le, cónglái bù kǎolǜ biéren.
He is too selfish and never thinks about others.

Tips

memory
禾 (grain) + 厶 (private) - hoarding grain for oneself

Components

radical
禾 hé
grain stalk; cereal
Grain radical on the left - pictograph of a ripe rice stalk bending under its own weight. In ancient China, private property was first measured and accumulated as grain stored in one's own household, so the radical anchors 私 in the personal-property family. Same radical heads 秋 autumn, 种 seed, 稳 stable, 秤 scale.
phonetic
厶 sī
private; self (ancient form)
Right side 厶 supplies an exact phonetic match: sī to sī, no drift. 厶 is the archaic form of 私 itself - a coiled shape representing 'enclosed for oneself'. The classical contrast: 公 (public) is graphically 八 (split open) over 厶 (private) - breaking apart what was held selfishly. The grain radical was added later to disambiguate.

Stroke Order

私 sī