不客气
bù kè qi · HSK 1
you're welcome
🙏 不 (not) + 客气 (polite/guest-manners) = no need for guest-formality
客 means guest, 气 here is manner/air; together 客气 is the polite stiffness shown to a guest. Saying 不客气 literally waves that off — no need to act like a guest with me.
不 — single pictograph; bird flying upward
Originally a pictograph in oracle bone script, traditionally interpreted as a bird flying up toward the sky and unable to come down, suggesting negation or refusal. Over time it became the standard negation word in Chinese, used before verbs and adjectives to mean 'not'.
气 — steam/vapor radical 气
Originally a pictograph of rising vapor or clouds drifting in the sky, depicting curling streams of air. The character came to mean breath, air, and by extension vital energy or 'qi.' The simplified form 气 keeps the original outline; the traditional 氣 added 米 (rice) to suggest steam rising from cooking grain.