Definitions
(adjective)
hot; pungent (taste)
(adjective)
laborious; difficult; suffering
(noun)
eighth heavenly stem
Etymology
Pictograph of a chisel-like tool. The meaning later shifted to "hard" and "laborious".
About
The character 辛, in its traditional form, has a history that connects a concrete object to abstract human experience. Its earliest depictions represented a bronze chisel or an ancient tattooing needle, tools associated with the punitive practice of marking criminals, which conceptually linked the character to suffering, crime, and hardship. Over time, this direct association with the physical instrument faded, but the sense of difficulty and bitterness remained, solidifying its core meaning as an adjective describing pungency, as in spices, and more broadly, toil and misery. This conceptual foundation allowed it to function effectively as a semantic component in other characters, often contributing a sense of tribulation or legal matter, as seen in characters like 辜 (guilt) and 辭 (to resign). Structurally stable, the character’s form has been streamlined from its ancient pictorial origins into a more abstract arrangement of strokes, but it continues to convey its dual legacy of sharp flavor and human difficulty.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
妈妈每天都很辛苦。
学习是一件辛苦的事。
这道菜味道很辛辣。
农民辛勤地劳动。
他经历了太多辛酸。
在辛苦工作之后他需要休息。
辛辣的批评有时能促进进步。
尽管生活辛劳她依然保持乐观。