細思恐極

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Chinese

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fine; minutely; thin
fine; minutely; thin; slender
 
to think; to consider afraid; frightened; to fear
utmost; pole; extreme
utmost; pole; extreme; to reach the limit
 
trad. (細思恐極)
simp. (细思恐极)
alternative forms 細思極恐细思极恐
anagram 細思極恐细思极恐
Literally: “carefully-think-afraid-extremely”.

Etymology

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Shortened from the following phrase:

覺得 [MSC, trad.]
觉得 [MSC, simp.]
xiángxiǎng, juéde kǒngbù zhì. [Pinyin]
Thinking about it carefully, I find it extremely terrifying.

replacing 想 with 思 which is used more in written language, to make it resemble a genuine Chinese chengyu (idiom).

Made popular by a compilation of Internet neologisms posted on Sina Weibo on June 16, 2013.

Pronunciation

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Phrase

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細思恐極

  1. (Mainland China, neologism, Internet slang) The more one thinks about it, the more petrified one becomes.