迷

mí
noun HSK 5 #1,863

Meanings

  1. 1 fan; enthusiast
  2. 2 lost; confused
  3. 3 crazy about

Characters

Contains 辶 (movement) + 米 (rice) - walking among rice paddies and getting lost.

Examples

HSK 2
Tā shì yí gè zúqiú mí.
He's a football fan.
HSK 3
Tā mí shàng le Zhōngguó wénhuà.
She became crazy about Chinese culture.
HSK 7-9
Zhè dào tí bǎ wǒ gǎo míhu le.
This question confused me.

Tips

usage
X迷 = X fan/enthusiast: 球迷 (sports fan), 歌迷 (music fan), 影迷 (movie fan). 粉丝 (from English 'fans') is the modern slang equivalent.

Components

radical
辶 chuò
walk; movement (radical form)
Walking radical wrapping the bottom-left - the indexing radical. Marks 迷 as a verb of motion gone astray: to walk and lose one's way. The 'fascination, fan' senses extend metaphorically - to lose oneself in something. Same radical anchors 进, 远, 近, 边.
phonetic
米 mǐ
rice (here phonetic)
Inner 米 supplies the sound: mǐ to mí, only a tone shift. Pure phonetic loan; the rice-grain meaning doesn't carry into 迷. The folk-mnemonic 'lost among the rice paddies' is a useful memory hook for learners but isn't the historical etymology.

Stroke Order

迷 mí