<p>This is a phono-semantic compound. The heart radical is the semantic component. It tells us this has a heart (emotion)-related meaning. The righthand side is the phonetic component. In this case, 白 /bai/ which has a similar sound as 怕 /pa/.</p>
<p>This wikipedia article explains the six different categories of Chinese characters. Check the section on phono-semantic compounds for more examples.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-27T04:57:08.723Z
2021-02-27T04:57:08.723Z
monalisa
<p>「怕」 (Mandarin Pinyin: <strong>pà</strong>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Zhengzhang_(1981%E2%80%931995)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Zhengzhang OC</a>: <strong>/*pʰraːɡs/</strong>, <em>to be afraid</em>) is comprised of two components:</p>
<ul>
<li>「心・忄」 (<em>heart</em> &gt; <em>emotions</em>), a meaning hint; and</li>
<li>「白」 (Mandarin Pinyin: <strong>bái</strong>, Zhengzhang OC: <strong>/*braːɡ/</strong>), a sound hint.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p>Note that words have both <em>meaning</em> and <em>sound</em>, and you can't write every word with just a bunch of symbols representing meaning - sounds play a major role in determining what a word is.</p>
<p>Here, 「白」 is <strong>only</strong> a sound hint, not a meaning hint. To emphasise that 「白」 is only a sound hint, people have written the word represented by 「怕」 differently throughout the ages with different sound hints. For example,</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/MZ6lf.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/MZ6lf.png" alt="⿰忄霸" /></a></p>
<p>Sound hint 「霸」 (Mandarin Pinyin: <strong>bà</strong>, Zhengzhang OC: <strong>/*praːɡs/</strong>)</p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/g0EiS.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/g0EiS.png" alt="⿰忄巴" /></a></p>
<p>Sound hint 「巴」 (Mandarin Pinyin: <strong>bā</strong>, Zhengzhang OC: <strong>/*praː/</strong>)</p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-27T05:45:15.120Z
2021-02-27T06:10:30.597Z
2021-02-27T06:10:30.597Z
dROOOze
<p>Learning this word 怕 which is heart and bright. It means bright and blemishless heart like Brave Heart. Why this is fear heart?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-27T05:26:36.203Z
Quote:- "Why this is fear heart?" Don't you feel "fear" in your "heart" when you are afraid?
Wayne Cheah
<etymology><glyph-origin>
Why 怕 is afraid or fear?
# Why 怕 is afraid or fear?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-02-27)

Learning this word 怕 which is heart and bright. It means bright and blemishless heart like Brave Heart. Why this is fear heart?

**Tags:** etymology, glyph-origin

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Quote:- "Why this is fear heart?" Don't you feel "fear" in your "heart" when you are afraid?  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-02-27. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

This is a phono-semantic compound. The heart radical is the semantic component. It tells us this has a heart (emotion)-related meaning. The righthand side is the phonetic component. In this case, 白 /bai/ which has a similar sound as 怕 /pa/.

This wikipedia article explains the six different categories of Chinese characters. Check the section on phono-semantic compounds for more examples.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters>


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### Answer by username_3 on 2021-02-27. Score: 4

「怕」 (Mandarin Pinyin: **pà**, [Zhengzhang OC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Zhengzhang_(1981%E2%80%931995)): **/\*pʰraːɡs/**, *to be afraid*) is comprised of two components:

* 「心・忄」 (*heart* > *emotions*), a meaning hint; and
* 「白」 (Mandarin Pinyin: **bái**, Zhengzhang OC: **/\*braːɡ/**), a sound hint.

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Note that words have both *meaning* and *sound*, and you can't write every word with just a bunch of symbols representing meaning - sounds play a major role in determining what a word is.

Here, 「白」 is **only** a sound hint, not a meaning hint. To emphasise that 「白」 is only a sound hint, people have written the word represented by 「怕」 differently throughout the ages with different sound hints. For example,

* [![⿰忄霸](https://i.sstatic.net/MZ6lf.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/MZ6lf.png)

  Sound hint 「霸」 (Mandarin Pinyin: **bà**, Zhengzhang OC: **/\*praːɡs/**)
* [![⿰忄巴](https://i.sstatic.net/g0EiS.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/g0EiS.png)

  Sound hint 「巴」 (Mandarin Pinyin: **bā**, Zhengzhang OC: **/\*praː/**)


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