漢字Kanji · in States & Attributes
辛: spicy, bitter
Also: hot, acrid
立 and 十 are drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
シンshin · on'yomi · in compounds
- 辛苦しんくhardship, toil, trouble
- 辛酸しんさんhardships, privation
- 辛辣なしんらつなbitter, sharp, acrimonious
- 辛抱するしんぼうするendure, persevere
- 香辛料こうしんりょうspices
からいkarai · kun'yomi · on its own
- 辛いからいhot, salty, tough, adverse, harsh
- 塩辛いしおからいsalty
- 辛子からしmustard
- 唐辛子とうがらしred pepper, cayenne
- 世知辛いせちがらいhard , tough
Also read つらい, -づらい, かのと, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
Pictogram (象形) Older oracle bone forms of 辛 (⿱∇木) depict newly grown tree shoots, acting as the original ideogram for 新 and 薪. In 新, the top of the axe component (斤) aligns with the bottom of ∇, signifying the chopping of wood.
Source: Wiktionary, 辛 (rev. 92690502), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji for a sharp flavor that "burns" or a moment in life that is "painful" and exceptionally difficult to endure.”
Connections
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · xīn
Same form: 辛 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 辛 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 辛 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin xīn most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.