<p>辛苦: 比喻艰难困苦<br />
辛苦: metaphorically: difficult, toilsome</p>
<p>Well, hard means: <em>solid and firm, not soft:</em> 硬</p>
<p>Another meaning of hard is <em>difficult</em>, a meaning preserved in the phrase: <em>hard of hearing</em></p>
<p>Related to <em>hard</em> is the Spanish word:</p>
<p><em>harto</em>: fed up (with something), tired of (because of too much)</p>
<p>辛苦: pungent<br />
原指味道<strong>辛辣</strong>而<strong>苦</strong>,比喻艰难困苦<br />
originally referred to a <strong>spicy</strong> <strong>bitter</strong> taste, metaphorically (it means) difficult, toilsome</p>
<p>辛苦: literally: pungent: metaphorically: something which leaves a bitter taste behind, like too much difficult work. (Getting out of bed in the morning is just too much!)</p>
<p>努力: try hard, hardworking: 努力工作: work hard<br />
艰苦: difficult, hard, arduous: 艰苦的工作: hard work<br />
差事: job, task: 苦差事: arduous task<br />
辛苦的工作: hard work</p>
<p>你们辛苦了一整天。<br />
You have had a tiring day.</p>
<p>辛苦</p>
<p>辛苦是一个汉语词语，<br />
辛苦 is a Chinese phrase,<br />
读音是xīn kǔ，<br />
(which) is spoken xīn kǔ<br />
原指味道辛辣而苦，<br />
originally referring to a spicy bitter taste,<br />
比喻艰难困苦，<br />
metaphorically  (it refers to a person) in difficult circumstances, whose life is hard,<br />
很疲倦的感觉。<br />
(or) a very weary feeling.<br />
现多指工作和劳作的感受。<br />
Nowadays (辛苦 is used) mostly in the sense of work and manual labour.<br />
辛劳苦累，<br />
(just) hard work and toil<br />
付出艰辛，<br />
expending (time or energy) is difficult,<br />
用于烦劳别人时表示客气、慰问。<br />
(this phrase is) used to politely express putting someone to some trouble or inconvenience.</p>
<p>辛苦在汉董仲舒《春秋繁露·五行之义》有记载：<br />
In Dong Zhongshu's 《&quot;The Meaning of the Five Elements in the Spring and Autumn Annals&quot;》is written:<br />
“金木水火虽各职，不因土，方不立，若酸咸<strong>辛苦</strong>之不因甘肥不能成味也。”<br />
&quot;Gold, wood, water fire although each have their place, not so earth, (earth) can't ????(be added??), if the taste is sour salty or <strong>pungent</strong> this does not mean sweet and fat cannot be ingredients yeah.&quot;</p>
<p>I would be very grateful to <strong>水巷孑蠻</strong> if he could check this last part:</p>
<p>“金木水火虽各职，不因土，方不立，若酸咸<strong>辛苦</strong>之不因甘肥不能成味也。”</p>
<p>This Old Chinese is not easy for me!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-06T14:04:50.580Z
the context: in 董仲舒‘s time, according to “ 五德終始說”, the 漢 dynasty belongs to “土德”. so, mr 董 distorted the equality of elements, emphasised that the earth element (土) has a higher status amongst 5 elements. therefore, when 5 tastes (五味) associated to 5 elements (五行), the taste sweet (甘)  became a centralised, irreplaceable notion in tasting. imo, it’s bxxx sxxx 
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-06T07:17:40.033Z
2024-06-06T09:02:51.583Z
2024-06-06T09:02:51.583Z
Pedroski
<p>I wouldn't go as far as to call it &quot;madness&quot;, but I don't think there is any rationale or methodology that determines which characters form which words (apart from the meanings in the characters themselves, which can be quite broad). It just happens in an ad-hoc fashion as new concepts emerge and people find ways to express them, and some of those enter into common usage and are passed down. It's more like evolution, and not very much like &quot;intelligent design&quot;</p>
<p>As such, you can learn a new word such as 辛苦 and understand post-hoc (with a little imagination) how the sense of &quot;hard work&quot; could be related to the characters for &quot;spicy&quot; and &quot;bitter&quot;, but I don't think there is any way you could hear xīnkǔ and know for certain that it should be 辛苦 and not 心苦, without consulting a dictionary or asking somebody.</p>
<p>It seems quite probable that if you could rerun world history and have the Chinese language evolve all over again you might end up with 心苦 or more likely something completely different not related to flavours at all!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-07T01:50:00.607Z
Q -- "It seems quite probable that if you could rerun world history and have the Chinese language evolve all over again you might end up with 心苦 or more likely something completely different not related to flavours at all" I doubt that because food and flavors, (and thus culinary taste, spicy or otherwise), are so embedded in the Chinese "victual DNA" that it would still end up as it is, which is why it ended up as it is in the first place. To the Chinese therefore nothing causes more "hardship" than having to eat "bitter" food, though the love of coffee, recently, is an isolated apparition :)
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-07T02:47:56.357Z
I don't know, my in-laws seem to like using 苦瓜 in their cooking...
河南宝宝
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-07T08:16:27.430Z
As always, there's an answer to that, 苦尽甘来 :)
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-10T01:28:34.037Z
想享福先吃苦.........
河南宝宝
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-07T00:35:41.323Z
2024-06-07T00:35:41.323Z
河南宝宝
<p>Never thought about it but a good question.
Regardless we learn phrases in sentences</p>
<p>I always look at this issue, as reinventing a new letter (a-z) issue.</p>
<p>Chinese Characters (words) on their own are weak, and a new character cannot be reinvented (the computer could not recognise it), so ppl keep on creating new phrases to keep up the creativity in language.</p>
<p><strong>The madness is the beauty of how a spice can be created to express creativities</strong>. Like English, a phrase can be created by merging 2 words, e.g. chillax, it's one of the beauties of English</p>
<p>I believe 辛苦 means its literal meaning.
e.g. 谢谢您， 辛苦了！ thank you for the 辛 (bitterness) and 苦 (hardship) you've been through!</p>
<p>To me, it pointed to the effort a person made, not sure about mental hardship.</p>
<p>心苦, however, <strong>it's not a real phrase to me</strong>, I would consider it's typo error and read it as 辛苦 if in the letter.</p>
<p>But if you emphasize 心苦 is what your intention is, I probably think you have a bitter heart.
the common phrase in conversation is 我的心好苦, and the response will be, I feel you mate! （委屈你了）</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-07T01:35:18.710Z
There is 苦心, meaning to put a lot of effort, energy in doing a task.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-06T23:18:10.803Z
2024-06-07T03:15:31.553Z
2024-06-07T03:15:31.553Z
Max Ma
<p>辛 (bitterness) and 苦 (hardship) mean different things but 辛苦 means hard work</p>
<p>what is the method to the madness here? is there some sort of busuo methodology or etymological origins? or what?</p>
<p>tldr; naively, i had mistaken 辛苦 to be written as 心苦 - meaning hard work comes from the heart.</p>
<p>corollary: i'm curious why the first was chosen for hardwork and not some other combination?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-06T04:36:56.890Z
how do you comprehend “hotdog”, “ladybird”, one is a yummy food, another one is an insect  would you call it as “**madness**”, that these two are not “dog”, “bird” related?
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-06-06T05:44:02.750Z
search "compound words" and read some of the posts and you will get the idea
Tang Ho
<etymology><word>
The method or madness in combining two characters together for a new meaning
# The method or madness in combining two characters together for a new meaning

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-06-06)

辛 (bitterness) and 苦 (hardship) mean different things but 辛苦 means hard work

what is the method to the madness here? is there some sort of busuo methodology or etymological origins? or what?

tldr; naively, i had mistaken 辛苦 to be written as 心苦 - meaning hard work comes from the heart.

corollary: i'm curious why the first was chosen for hardwork and not some other combination?

**Tags:** etymology, word

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: how do you comprehend “hotdog”, “ladybird”, one is a yummy food, another one is an insect  would you call it as “**madness**”, that these two are not “dog”, “bird” related?  
> **username_2**: search "compound words" and read some of the posts and you will get the idea  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2024-06-06. Score: 1

辛苦: 比喻艰难困苦  
辛苦: metaphorically: difficult, toilsome

Well, hard means: *solid and firm, not soft:* 硬

Another meaning of hard is *difficult*, a meaning preserved in the phrase: *hard of hearing*

Related to *hard* is the Spanish word:

*harto*: fed up (with something), tired of (because of too much)

辛苦: pungent  
原指味道**辛辣**而**苦**,比喻艰难困苦  
originally referred to a **spicy** **bitter** taste, metaphorically (it means) difficult, toilsome

辛苦: literally: pungent: metaphorically: something which leaves a bitter taste behind, like too much difficult work. (Getting out of bed in the morning is just too much!)

努力: try hard, hardworking: 努力工作: work hard  
艰苦: difficult, hard, arduous: 艰苦的工作: hard work  
差事: job, task: 苦差事: arduous task  
辛苦的工作: hard work

你们辛苦了一整天。  
You have had a tiring day.

辛苦

辛苦是一个汉语词语，  
辛苦 is a Chinese phrase,  
读音是xīn kǔ，  
(which) is spoken xīn kǔ  
原指味道辛辣而苦，  
originally referring to a spicy bitter taste,  
比喻艰难困苦，  
metaphorically (it refers to a person) in difficult circumstances, whose life is hard,  
很疲倦的感觉。  
(or) a very weary feeling.  
现多指工作和劳作的感受。  
Nowadays (辛苦 is used) mostly in the sense of work and manual labour.  
辛劳苦累，  
(just) hard work and toil  
付出艰辛，  
expending (time or energy) is difficult,  
用于烦劳别人时表示客气、慰问。  
(this phrase is) used to politely express putting someone to some trouble or inconvenience.

辛苦在汉董仲舒《春秋繁露·五行之义》有记载：  
In Dong Zhongshu's 《"The Meaning of the Five Elements in the Spring and Autumn Annals"》is written:  
“金木水火虽各职，不因土，方不立，若酸咸**辛苦**之不因甘肥不能成味也。”  
"Gold, wood, water fire although each have their place, not so earth, (earth) can't ????(be added??), if the taste is sour salty or **pungent** this does not mean sweet and fat cannot be ingredients yeah."

I would be very grateful to **username_1** if he could check this last part:

“金木水火虽各职，不因土，方不立，若酸咸**辛苦**之不因甘肥不能成味也。”

This Old Chinese is not easy for me!

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: the context: in 董仲舒‘s time, according to “ 五德終始說”, the 漢 dynasty belongs to “土德”. so, mr 董 distorted the equality of elements, emphasised that the earth element (土) has a higher status amongst 5 elements. therefore, when 5 tastes (五味) associated to 5 elements (五行), the taste sweet (甘)  became a centralised, irreplaceable notion in tasting. imo, it’s bxxx sxxx   

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2024-06-07. Score: 0

I wouldn't go as far as to call it "madness", but I don't think there is any rationale or methodology that determines which characters form which words (apart from the meanings in the characters themselves, which can be quite broad). It just happens in an ad-hoc fashion as new concepts emerge and people find ways to express them, and some of those enter into common usage and are passed down. It's more like evolution, and not very much like "intelligent design"

As such, you can learn a new word such as 辛苦 and understand post-hoc (with a little imagination) how the sense of "hard work" could be related to the characters for "spicy" and "bitter", but I don't think there is any way you could hear xīnkǔ and know for certain that it should be 辛苦 and not 心苦, without consulting a dictionary or asking somebody.

It seems quite probable that if you could rerun world history and have the Chinese language evolve all over again you might end up with 心苦 or more likely something completely different not related to flavours at all!

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Q -- "It seems quite probable that if you could rerun world history and have the Chinese language evolve all over again you might end up with 心苦 or more likely something completely different not related to flavours at all" I doubt that because food and flavors, (and thus culinary taste, spicy or otherwise), are so embedded in the Chinese "victual DNA" that it would still end up as it is, which is why it ended up as it is in the first place. To the Chinese therefore nothing causes more "hardship" than having to eat "bitter" food, though the love of coffee, recently, is an isolated apparition :)  
> **username_4**: I don't know, my in-laws seem to like using 苦瓜 in their cooking...  
> **username_5**: As always, there's an answer to that, 苦尽甘来 :)  
> **username_4**: 想享福先吃苦.........  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2024-06-06. Score: 0

Never thought about it but a good question.
Regardless we learn phrases in sentences

I always look at this issue, as reinventing a new letter (a-z) issue.

Chinese Characters (words) on their own are weak, and a new character cannot be reinvented (the computer could not recognise it), so ppl keep on creating new phrases to keep up the creativity in language.

**The madness is the beauty of how a spice can be created to express creativities**. Like English, a phrase can be created by merging 2 words, e.g. chillax, it's one of the beauties of English

I believe 辛苦 means its literal meaning.
e.g. 谢谢您， 辛苦了！ thank you for the 辛 (bitterness) and 苦 (hardship) you've been through!

To me, it pointed to the effort a person made, not sure about mental hardship.

心苦, however, **it's not a real phrase to me**, I would consider it's typo error and read it as 辛苦 if in the letter.

But if you emphasize 心苦 is what your intention is, I probably think you have a bitter heart.
the common phrase in conversation is 我的心好苦, and the response will be, I feel you mate! （委屈你了）

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: There is 苦心, meaning to put a lot of effort, energy in doing a task.  

---

