羡

羨

xiàn

次 + 𦍌

Definitions

xiàn (verb) to envy; to admire

Etymology

Depicts a person salivating (㳄) when seeing a tasty sheep (羊) that they have a desire to eat.

About

羡, meaning to envy or admire, comes from the traditional form 羨, an ideogrammic compound that combines 羊 'sheep', a symbol of something desirable or delicious, with 㳄, a component depicting saliva or drooling. Together they picture a person salivating at the sight of a tasty sheep they long to eat, a concrete image of intense craving that later broadened into the abstract sense of coveting, envying, or admiring what others possess. The modern simplified character 羡 reduces the lower part to 次 while keeping the sheep element, preserving the original semantic core.

Etymology Hide

Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Traditional Modern

Simplified Modern

Example Sentences Hide

我很羡慕你。

Wǒ hěn xiànmù nǐ.

I envy you very much.

他羡慕我的新车。

Tā xiànmù wǒ de xīn chē.

He envies my new car.

我们都羡慕她的成功。

Wǒmen dōu xiànmù tā de chénggōng.

We all envy her success.

孩子们羡慕天空中的小鸟。

Háizimen xiànmù tiānkōng zhōng de xiǎo niǎo.

The children envy the birds in the sky.

我羡慕他能说流利的外语。

Wǒ xiànmù tā néng shuō liúlì de wàiyǔ.

I envy that he can speak foreign languages fluently.

她羡慕那些周游世界的人。

Tā xiànmù nàxiē zhōu yóu shìjiè de rén.

She envies those people who travel around the world.

虽然生活艰辛，但他从不羡慕别人的富贵。

Suīrán shēnghuó jiānxīn, dàn tā cóng bù xiànmù biérén de fùguì.

Although life is hard, he never envies others' wealth.

每当看到别人取得成就时，他内心不禁涌起一丝羡慕之情。

Měi dāng kàndào biérén qǔdé chéngjiù shí, tā nèixīn bùjīn yǒng qǐ yīsī xiànmù zhī qíng.

Whenever he sees others achieve success, he can't help but feel a tinge of envy in his heart.

Related Characters

Composed characters:

Component: 次

Component: 𦍌

羡