忐忑

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Chinese

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Glyph origin

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Ideogrammic compound (會意会意) , from (“up”), (“down”) and (“heart”).

Etymology 1

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phonetic
simp. and trad.
(忐忑)
alternative forms 憳忒𱞕忒

Unknown. Earliest attestation was in the Song dynasty as 憳忒 in Jiyun. It is a word where the onsets are shared between the syllables (雙聲詞), likely reduplicative and/or onomatopoeic in origin. Compare 忒忒 (tètè, “throbbing (abnormally)”) and 突突 (tūtū, “palpitating”) (Ma, 2007), as well as Vietnamese thấp thỏm, nhấp nhỏm (uneasy, fidgety).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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忐忑

  1. perturbed; nervous; uneasy; fidgety
    忐忑不安  ―  tǎntèbù'ān  ―  uneasy
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Middle Korean: 탐탁〮 (thàmthák)

Etymology 2

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phonetic
simp. and trad.
(忐忑)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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忐忑

  1. (obsolete) sincere
    心心忐忑  ―  xīnxīn kěngdǎo  ―  sincere