不幸
búxìng · HSK 5
unfortunate
💔 不 (not) + 幸 (lucky) = not lucky → unfortunate
不 negates and 幸 means luck or good fortune, so 不幸 literally reads as not-lucky. The same 幸 appears in 幸福 (happiness) and 幸运 (luck), making the negation pattern easy to track.
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'.