不已
bùyǐ · HSK 7
incessantly
🔄 不 (not) + 已 (stop) = not stopping, endlessly
已 means to cease or finish. Negate it with 不 and you get something that never stops. Like a loop that refuses to break — bùyǐ, on and on without end.
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'.
已 — snake/fetus 巳 variant, with top opened
Originally a pictograph related to 巳 (a coiled fetus or snake form), 已 was distinguished by opening the top stroke. In ancient texts it came to mean 'to stop, cease, finish,' and by extension 'already.' The graphic split from 巳 and 己 helped fix its modern sense as a marker of completed action.