耻 (chǐ): shame

Meanings

1 shame
2 humiliation
3 disgrace

Characters

耻

chǐ

shame; disgrace

Examples

知耻而后勇。

Zhī chǐ érhòu yǒng.

Knowing shame leads to courage.

这是国家的耻辱。

Zhè shì guójiā de chǐrǔ.

This is a national disgrace.

Tips

usage

耻 is a bound form — it rarely appears alone in modern Chinese. Common compounds: 耻辱 (chǐrǔ, disgrace), 可耻 (kěchǐ, shameful), 无耻 (wúchǐ, shameless), 羞耻 (xiūchǐ, shame).

history

Confucius considered 耻 (shame) a key moral concept — a person who feels shame will correct their behavior. The saying 知耻近乎勇 ('knowing shame is close to courage') is from the Classic of Rites.

Components

radical

耳 ěr

ear

Left ear radical — pictograph of an outer ear. The indexing radical and the semantic core: shame in classical Chinese psychology was felt at the ears, the part of the body that flushes red and burns when one is humiliated. Hence the saying 面红耳赤.

semantic

止 zhǐ

stop; foot

Right 止 originally pictured a foot, with the extended sense 'to stop, halt.' In 耻 it joins the ear to suggest 'ears stop' — the freezing, paralysing reaction of being caught out. Some readings also treat 止 as a faint phonetic in the older zhǐ rhyme group.