#indignant

An illustration of a “Starling in possession of a Woodpecker’s Nesting Hole” from Edmond Selous’s Bird Life Glimpses(1905).

Full text available here.

1254/2000

JLPT: N1

School Grade: Junior high school

This character is a combination of 忄 heart/feelings and 賁 a non-general use character meaning “decorate.” 賁 itself is a combination of a simplification of 奔 run, here meaning “to swell out,” and 貝 shell/shellfish. 賁 carries a meaning of a beautiful, large, bulging shell. In 憤, 賁 is a phonetic element signaling the on’yomi, while certainly also lending its connotations of “to swell/burst out.” Together with 忄, this gives “feelings building up and bursting forth,” which led to the current meanings of “indignation” and “anger.”