不辞而别
bù cí ér bié · HSK 7
to leave without saying good-bye
🚪💨 不 not + 辞 farewell-words + 而 yet + 别 part = parting without a word
辞 is the same cí as in 辞职 (resign) — formal words of departure. Someone skips even that formality and just vanishes.
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'.
辞 — 舌 (tongue) + 辛 (bitter/blade)
Originally written 辭, depicting hands sorting tangled threads beside 辛 (a knife or judgment), meaning to settle disputes with words. The modern simplified form replaces the left side with 舌 (tongue), reinforcing the speech sense. Meanings extended from 'legal statement' to 'words, phrases, to take leave.'
而 — pictograph of beard/whiskers hanging from chin
Originally a pictograph of a beard or facial hair hanging below the chin, visible clearly in oracle bone and bronze script forms. The beard meaning was lost early, and the character was borrowed phonetically to write the grammatical conjunction 'and/but/yet'. This connective use has been standard since classical Chinese.
别 — separate (knife 刂 + 另 phonetic/'other')
别 originally depicted using a knife (刂) to separate flesh from bone, giving the core sense of 'divide' or 'part from'. The left component 另 ('another, other') reinforces the idea of setting things apart and also hints at the sound. From 'separate' the meaning naturally extended to 'other, different' and to the adverb 'don't' (i.e. do otherwise).